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THE 



HISTORIC LANDS 



OF 



ENGLAND. 



BY 

<=>w jY BERNARD BURKE, ESQ., 

AUTHOR OF 

€f)e Hant^tr <§entn>, fcc 



Many a land that is famous in story, 




LONDON: 
E. CHURTON, 26, HOLLES STREET. 

MDCCCXLIX. 






LONDON : 

MYERS AND CO., PRINTERS, 

37, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 



TO THE 

RIGHT HON. FREDERICK LORD SAYE AND SELE, 

A NOBLEMAN 

DISTINGUISHED ALIKE BY THE HISTORIC BRILLIANCY OF 
HIS LINEAGE AND HIS OWN PERSONAL WORTH, 

€£te Volume 

IS INSCRIBED, 

WITH THE SINCERE RESPECT AND ESTEEM 01 
HIS LORDSHIP'S OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERYAIsT, 



J. B. B. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



^ Hylton Castle 
^ Pudleston Court 
<*- Calke Abbey 

• SODBURY 

Bramshill 
i Beaumanor 
t- Ashworth Hall 

Hylton Memorials 

Highclere 

Hayne 



Frontispiece. 



xxvi 

xxxii 

1 

63 
109 i/a 
123 
129 
150 

K5 



INDEX 



Alfoxton . 


PAGE 
XV 


; Hornby Castle . 


PAGE 

iv 


Alton Abbey 


. xix 


Hunmanby Hall 


iv 


Audley End 


. 29 


Hylton Castle 


. 129 


Ashworth Hall . 


. 123 










Knole 


XX 


Baddesley Clinton 


vi 






Basing 


. 41 


Lancaster Castle 


. 83 


Baynards . 


xxviii 


Leeds Castle 


. xxi 


Beauchieff Abbey 


ii 


Loseley 


. xxxi 


Belhus Park 


. xxvi 


Lumley Castle . 


. 18 


Beaumanor 


. 109 






Belvoir 


xxxiv 


Mereworth Castle 


. xxiii 


Bradgate . 


. 17 


Middleham Castle 


. 153 


Bramshill . 


. 63 


Montacute 


xiv 


Broadhembury Grange 


xi 






Broughton Castle 


. xxiv 


Pixton Park 


. 33 


Burghley 


xvi 


Powderham Castle 


X 






Pudleston Court 


. xxvi 


Calke Abbey 


xxxii 






Carisbrooke Castle 


. 57 


Baby 


. xvii 


Castle Howard . 


V 


Ribstone Hall 


iii 


Cirencester Abbey 


X 


Rockingham Castle . 


XV 


Claremont 


. xxvii 






Delapre Abbey . 


. xvii 


Shotover 
Sodbury 


. xxiii 


Eshton Hall 


iv 


Staunton Hall 
Stoneleigh Abbey 


xii, xxxiv 
viii 


Farnham Castle 


. XXX 


Stowe 


xxxiii 


Foxdenton 


. 117 


Sulham 


. xxvi 


Flixton Hall 


. XXV 






Frampton Court 


X 


Temple Newsam 
TrarTord . 


vi 
xxvi 


Grace Dieu 


. 160 


Tregony Castle 


. xiii 


Grange 


xi 


Trentham 


xviii 


Groby 


. 17 










Vale Royal 


. 37 


Ham House 


. xxix 


Vine, the . 


xxvi 


Harewood Castle 


. 89 






Hayne 


. 165 


Welbeck Abbey 
Whitby Abbey 


xii 


Helmingham Hall 


. xxiv 


7 


Heslington Hall 


V 


Wimbledon Park 


15 


Highclere 
Holland House . 


. 150 
. 49 


Woburn Abbey 
Wressle 


xxxiii 
. 53 



INTRODUCTION 



& Gamble tjnmgi) t^e <&\\$\fy Counties. 

It was a remark of Mr. Everett, who was at one time the American 
envoy in this country, " We have everything great in America. We 
have great rivers, great mountains, great forests, and great lakes ; but 
we have no olden buildings, no castles or houses of an ancient aristo- 
cracy, and no monasteries. To see these, we must visit the land of our 
fathers." 

There is something equally just and beautiful in this affectionate tri- 
bute to the old country, and the more so kind and ennobling a feeling 
spreads amongst the Americans, the better it will be for themselves. 
Abstractedly, there is no great value in uninhabitable ruins ; and no 
doubt a mere utilitarian w r ould look upon the finest Gothic cathedral as a 
mere stone-receptacle for bones and dust, which would be more profitably 
employed in manuring our fields ; but somehow there is a feeling, in all 
save the obtusest of us, that will be heard in spite of utilitarianism, and 
we shall invariably find that whatever tends to connect us in idea with 
the past or the future, tends also — and in a greater degree than any- 
thing else save revealed religion — to make us conscious that we belong 
not wholly to earth or to the present, but are portions of immortality. 
He who narrows his thoughts and wishes to the time being may certainly 
reap some practical advantage from this limited application of his facul- 
ties, but it will be at the expense of higher and better feelings, just as 
the man who spends the whole of life in pointing needles or tempering 
pen-knives, may acquire skill in that particular art, but in so doing 
becomes eventually as narrow as his occupation. The more we free our 

a 



INTRODUCTION. 



minds from the idea of time and space, which are only words of limit, 
the nearer we approach to the understanding of the infinite — to that 
which has neither beginning nor end — and nothing does this so effectually 
as the abstracting ourselves from the present in the consideration of the 
past. It may, however, be objected to us, as Horatio objected to 
Hamlet, "this is to consider too curiously;" but instead of imitating 
the philosophic prince in our answer, which would lead us into the wilds 
of metaphysics, we will rather beg our readers to accompany us in a 
short ramble amongst the halls and castles of those who have helped to 
make the name of England so illustrious. In doing this it is not our 
purpose to pay the least attention to geographical proprieties ; limping 
time will have to toil after us in vain while we fly from place to place, 
for no better reason in the order of our march than their happening thus 
to rise upon the recollection. 

The antiquities of this country may for the most part be traced either 
to war or religion — to the turbulent though chivalrous barons, or to the 
monks, whom it is the fashion of modern ignorance to include in one 
sweeping censure, as if the embers of learning, art, and science had not 
been kept alive by them in the monasteries, when but for their industry, 
the mailed heel of kings and nobles would have trampled it out alto- 
gether. We cannot better illustrate this remark than by commencing 
with Beauchieff Abbey, in the extensive parish of Sheffield, a name which 
in the present day is so inseparably connected with the idea of plated 
goods and cutlery, that few will be able to imagine that it was ever the 
site of heroic deeds and baronial castles. Even the name of Hallam- 
shire is seldom if ever heard beyond the district to which it applies. Yet 
this was not always the case. There was a time when this district was 
the favourite residence of lordly barons, though of such days the traces 
are but few, and those few rapidly decaying, and giving place to the 
more useful, but certainly less picturesque, purposes of modern life. 

Beauchieff Abbey, was founded in 1183 by Robert FitzRanulph, the 
powerful Lord of Norton and of many other places in the county of Derby, 
and it seems in a short time to have become highly popular. And well it 
might. The spirit of religion in those days, though too often degraded by 
superstition, was yet sincere and fervent, besides which the people, who 
had hitherto been called upon to support such institutions in parts far away 
from them, had now all the advantage that belongs to the presence of a 
landlord, who consumes on his estate what his estate produces. Other bene- 
factors were found in a short time to continue the work which had been so 
well begun. The second Ralph de Ecclesall presented the monks with his 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. Ul 

corn-mill on the Sheaf, a short distance from the monastery, only attaching 
to it the condition that they should provide a canon to perform daily service 
in a chapel which he erected by his mansion. He was followed by a patron, 
not less liberal and attached to churchmen, who allowed the monks to 
graze thirty cows in his forest of Fullwood, with their young under three 
years old ; to this he added an acre of land, that they might have a spot 
on which to erect booths for the winter retreat of their herds, a gift pe- 
culiarly acceptable to a class of men whose wealth for the most part con- 
sisted in their cattle. His son was yet more bountiful, or perhaps as the 
good monks increased in worldly riches they became less fitting objects 
for charity, except upon the most extended scale. This liberal bene- 
factor estated them with his grange of Fullwood and the lands pertaining 
to it, and granted them also common of pasture throughout the whole of 
Fullwood and Riveling, for all their cattle, goats alone excepted, the 
injury done by these animals to the young trees being generally held a 
sufficient cause for excluding them from the woodland pastures. Beau- 
chiefF Abbey is now the seat of B. B. Pegge Buknell, Esq. 

It would be a grievous wrong to the admirers of Rib stone pippins 
were we to leave Yorkshire without some notice of the place which pro- 
duces this favourite apple. The original tree is said to have been raised 
from seed that came in the first place from France, but it has since spread 
into other countries, unchanged in name, and most likely as little changed 
in quality. But it is Ribstone Hall that should chiefly engage our 
attention, the seat, until late years, of the Goodricke family, but now the 
property of Joseph Dent, Esq., about four miles to the south-east of 
Knaresborough. It is situated upon an eminence, at the base of which 
flows the river Nid, almost encompassing it, and commands a beautiful 
prospect of considerable extent. In early times the manor belonged to 
two Danish chieftains, who had no doubt acquired it by the strong hand, 
the general mode of asserting a claim to any property in those days. 
Availing himself of the same right, William the Conqueror robbed the 
robbers, and bestowed the spoil upon two of his Norman companions, 
William de Percy and Ralph de Pagnel ; from them it passed into the 
hands of Lord Ross, who in 1224 bestowed it on the Knights Templars, 
and by these last it was held till their enormous wealth, no less than their 
vices and dangerous ambition, provoked the dissolution of their order. 
It then became the property of a Duke of Suffolk, and he, in 1542, sold 
it to Henry Goodricke, a gentleman of an ancient family in Somerset- 
shire. In the chapel belonging to the Hall are several memorials of the 
Goodrickes ; and in the churchyard is a curious sepulchral monument, 

a 2 



INTRODUCTION. 



which was dug up at York in the Trinity-yard, Micklegate, in 1688. 
It is a testimonial to the standard-bearer of the ninth Roman legion, if 
Ave may believe the antiquaries, who have endeavoured to explain the 
meaning of the inscription, and of the figure above it, with a standard in 
one hand and something like a basket in the other. The figure is sup- 
posed by some to represent the signifer himself. 

With less of antiquity to recommend it, but with the advantage of 
being little beyond four miles from the sea-coast, is Hunmanby Hall ; 
and if, using the privilege of the seven-leagued boots, we step from the 
East to the West Riding, we shall stumble on Eshton Hall, a place 
which finds such honourable mention in the bibliographical pages of 
Dibdin, and will be long remembered as the residence of a distinguished 
patron of literature, Miss Richardson Currer. 

While the sun seems still to linger on the wolds and hills of York- 
shire, we must notice one place more ere turning our pilgrim steps to 
other counties — Hoknby Castle, in the North Riding. This noble, but 
irregular pile, which even now retains a portion of its baronial grandeur, 
encloses an inner court or quadrangle, like the old colleges at Cambridge, 
though the general line of the building does not exceed two stories. 
Two embattled towers, the one round in the centre of the east front, and the 
other square at the end of the same side, are carried to a greater height, 
thus breaking what -would else be an uniform and monotonous line ; 
while on three of the sides — south, east, and north — is a separate en- 
trance. The whole stands upon an eminence sloping gently to the river 
that winds around its base, and commands an extensive view of moun- 
tain and moorland, of fertile plain and valley. From its extent and 
massiveness it impresses the mind strongly with the rude greatness of 
former times, when man seemed, with a noble but mistaken daring, to 
stamp " esto perpetuumJ " upon all his works. 

Previous to the reign of Henry IV. this castle belonged to the family 
of St. Quintin, till the male line becoming extinct, and the young heiress 
of the house, Margaret St. Quintin, marrying Sir John Conyers, it of 
course passed into the possession of her husband. This family increased 
in wealth and rank for many years, when a daughter again succeeded to 
the inheritance, who married Thomas Lord Darcy, and thus transferred 
it to a new line. The same thing happened a third time in 1778, when 
Robert, Earl of Holderness, the lineal descendant of the Conyers', died, 
leaving an only daughter to inherit. This lady gave her hand to 
Francis Godolphin, Marquess of Carmarthen, the eldest son of the Duke 
of Leeds, and in that family Hornby Castle still remains. 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. V 

Castle Howakd is a princely mansion, four miles from Malton, but 
■without much claim to antiquity, having been erected by Charles, the 
third Earl of Carlisle, on the spot where once stood the old castle of 
Hinderskelf. It is more extensive than Blenheim, and is not altogether 
the work of one architect, nor is it from one design. The north front 
was built by Sir John Vanbrugh, and consists of a rich centre of the 
Corinthian order, with a cupola rising from the roof, flanked by two 
large wings, the east of which was finished according to the original plan, 
while the west has been erected by Sir James Robinson, with little regard 
to the character of the rest of the building. The south, or garden front, 
is also magnificent, and though perhaps questionable in point of taste, is 
undeniably very striking. Within, the rooms are spacious to an unusual 
degree, and abound in all the luxuries of modern refinement. Choice 
pictures, rare pieces of antiquity, and the most costly furniture, meet the 
eye on all sides ; and yet there is more magic in the simple name of 
Howard, associated as it is with the romantic features of English history 
than in all these accumulated splendours. 

In direct contrast to this creation of Vanbrugh's is Heslington Hall 
not more than two miles from the fine old city of York, that queen of 
the northern counties. The hall itself is a remarkably fine specimen of 
the Elizabethan period, having remained with but few alterations, thanks 
to the good taste of its successive inheritors. An ornamental porch, 
ascended by a flight of steps, leads to a hall of antique appearance, that 
will not fail to remind the student of his college days amid the venerable 
piles of Cambridge or Oxford. The roof is elaborately worked, while 
more than sixty shields, arranged on wainscot panels round the walls, 
emblazon the family arms; at the upper end extends a screen of carved 
oak, and on either side is placed a table of the same kind of wood, one of 
them being eighteen feet long, and both are formed from a single plank 
of great thickness. Even the grounds about the mansion retain the 
same antique appearance as the building itself, for the hollies and yew- 
trees still preserve those fantastic shapes in which at one time it was the 
fashion to clip them, as if the great object had been to make nature 
resemble art as much as possible. The family dates its origin in this 
country from the Norman conquest, at which time Eustachius, the first 
of the victorious settlers belonging to this race, took up his abode in 
Lincolnshire, as the lord of Yarburgh. This name is still borne by his 
descendants, who have remained in uninterrupted possession of Hesling- 
ton Hall up to the present day. 

But to enumerate all that deserves record in Yorkshire, would prolong 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

our ramble beyond any reasonable limit. One halt more only b efore 
quitting this magnificent county, which is so replete with historical 
associations, while in extent it is unrivalled by any two of the largest 
shires in England. The very name of Temple Newsam brings us back 
to the age of the warrior-monks, who once set their mailed foot upon 
the neck of kings, and had well-nigh been an over-match for the Pope 
himself. Where the present spacious and noble mansion stands, there was 
formerly a preceptory of the order, and from that circumstance is derived 
the first half of the modern appellation. Upon the suppression of these 
ambitious soldiers, the estate was granted by Edward III. to Sir John 
Darcie, with whose descendants it remained till Thomas Lord Darcy 
got himself embroiled with Henry the Eighth, who at all times adminis- 
tered justice in a summary way of his own, cutting off heads with as 
little pretence to reason as any Schah of Persia. In his day the York- 
shiremen raised a rebellion under the name of the " Pilgrimage of 
Grace," and Lord Darcy was suspected of treachery in having delivered 
up to them Pomfret Castle, whereupon the bluff monarch caused him 
to be hung upon Tower-hill. It is indeed far from certain whether the 
unlucky nobleman had really betrayed his trust to these gracious 
pilgrims, but Henry's suspicions were generally fatal to the object of 
them ; and having thus removed his former favourite, he bestowed the 
property upon Mathew, Earl of Lennox, whose son, the celebrated 
Darnley, was born here. James the First granted it to the then Duke 
of Lennox, and from him it was purchased by Sir Anthony Ingram, who 
built the present splendid mansion. It stands upon the banks of the 
Aire, about four miles from Leeds, and nearly fourteen from York, in 
the midst of a beautiful and fertile tract, which is watered by one of the 
largest rivers in Yorkshire. 

Warwickshire, though far less abundant in memorials of the olden 
times than the county we have just left, is yet not without several in- 
teresting remains. Among these may be numbered Baddesley Clinton, 
or Badsley Clinton, which received the second portion of its name from 
one of its early owners, Sir Thomas Clinton, to distinguish it from 
another Badsley in the same hundred. Like so many old estates, it 
has passed at various times into different hands, by the extinction of 
the male heirs, and the marriage of a surviving daughter. Upon one 
occasion, the possessor, finding that he held the estate by a disputable 
title, and having a wise objection to law in his own person, he parted 
with it to John Brome, a lawyer. The legal gentleman managed with 
considerable dexterity to keep his brethren of the long robe at bay, but 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. vii 

was less fortunate in a martial encounter with John Herthill, the steward 
to Nevill the great Earl of Warwick. It appears that the steward had 
mortgaged certain lands to the lawyer, which he wished to redeem, but 
the lawyer, preferring the estate to money, resisted tooth and nail all 
attempts at enforcing a claim to redemption. The steward, finding 
himself baffled by the superior legal tactics of his enemy, and having 
somewhat of his master's fiery disposition, he one day called Mr. John 
Brome out of the Whitefriars' church in London, where the latter 
chanced to be at mass, and entered into a hot dispute with him respect- 
ing the aforesaid mortgage. While they were yet in the church -porch, 
the dispute grew so high, they came to blows ; swords were drawn, and 
the lawyer fell mortally wounded, his own son looking on and smiling 
as he received his death-blow. So at least one must infer from his 
will, in which occurs the singular expression, that " he forgave his son, 
Thomas, who smiled when he saw him run through by Herthill, in the 
Whitefriars' church-porch." He had, however, another son, by name 
Nicholas, who succeeded Jiim, and was so far from indulging in any 
mirth upon the matter, that he waylaid and killed the steward in Long- 
bridge Field, on his way to hold a court for the Earl of Warwick. 
Upon this the widow of the murdered man took up the cudgels, for in 
those times — the good old times — a feud was seldom allowed to die with 
those in whom it had originated ; a son succeeded as naturally to his 
father's quarrels, as to his father's estate, and, there being no son in 
this case to demand blood for blood, the widow appealed, as the phrase 
went, the slayer of her late husband. Friends, however, interfered, 
and the feud was soldered up by the payment of certain monies to 
the appellant, and of others to the Church, that tapers might burn, 
and masses be duly said for the soul's repose of the departed. And here 
we cannot help pausing awhile to remark, that whatever objections may 
be made by those opposed to Roman Catholic observances, still it can- 
not be denied they were eminently calculated to promote peace, and to 
calm the passions of a fierce race, who were steeled against all other 
considerations. 

Having got so well out of this awkward business, the worthy Nicholas 
was not long before he fell into another of the same kind, for he was evi- 
dently of a hasty mood, and at all times ready to appeal to the arbitre- 
ment of the sword, without much distinction of priest or layman. Upon 
one occasion, being for some supposed wrong done him by the Parish 
Priest at Baddesley, mightily enraged, he made no more ado but ran the 
offender through the body. He obtained, however, his pardon both from the 



Vill INTRODUCTION. 

King and the Pope, upon condition of his doing something in the way of 
expiation. The mode of atonement would seem in a great measure to 
have been left to himself, whereupon he rebuilt the tower-steeple at 
Baddesley from the ground, and, moreover, purchased three bells for it, 
a steeple obviously being of no use without bells. In addition to this, 
he raised the body of the church itself ten feet higher than it had been 
before ; and " farther of him," says the old historian, " I have not found 
anything memorable, other than that he enclosed this lordship, and that 
he departed this world anno. 1517." His daughter Constance marrying 
Sir Edward Ferrers, grandson of the Hon. Thomas Ferrers, of Tamworth 
Castle, Baddesley Clinton, has since continued the inheritance of her 
descendants, the Ferrers', and is now enjoyed by Marmion Edward 
Ferrers, Esq., the present male representative of that illustrious 
house. 

Stoneleigh Abbey, in the same county, affords a striking instance of the 
vicissitudes of the lives — if we may be allowed so questionable a phrase — 
of houses, as well as men. In olden times, a Cistercian monastery stood 
upon this ground, and notable examples are the monks of how truly the poet 
spoke when he said, " men's evil manners live in brass," for the misdeeds 
of the brotherhood have outlasted their very walls and monuments. Not a 
single buttress, not a mouldering tomb-stone, remains to tell of the former 
inmates, either living or dead ; and yet the echos of other times have not 
passed away, but we still hear of the ill wrought by the dust that has 
long since been given back to its native elements. Two of the father- 
abbots, whether justly or not, have been written down by the chronicler 
for very grievous offenders. One of them, Thomas de Pipe, he tells us, 
had more children than there were monks in his monastery, and employed 
the rents of several of the conventual lands in supporting them. Even 
the mother of this forbidden multitude has not escaped the historian's 
malicious accuracy. That the scandal of his own days might not be lost 
to future times, he has duly recorded her by the name of Isabella 
Benshale. 

William de Gyldeford, another abbot of the same place, got himself "de- 
prived for countenancing a shepherd belonging to the monastery to fight a 
duel, and to hang a thief that had privately stole away some cattle of theirs." 
How far the inciting the shepherd to a duel should be considered an of- 
fence can scarcely be judged of, with no better information than is afforded 
by this bare record of the fact. In the latter case, the chronicler would 
seem to deal hardly with William de Gyldeford, for the thief manifestly de- 
served a rope, and it would seem that the abbot was fully authorized in sup- 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. IX 

plying him with one, if we are to place any reliance upon the monastic 
charter ; four of his bondsmen actually " held one mess and one quartrone 
of land, by the service of making the gallows and hanging the thieves," 
and this, if it mean anything at all, must imply the abbot's right of execu- 
ting marauders upon the monastic property. But in due time came Henry 
the Eighth, with his broom ecclesiastic, and drove all the rooks out of 
their rookery, as John Knox, in his sourzeal, was pleased to call the monks 
and the monasteries. In the division of the spoil thus acquired, Stone- 
leigh, by the monarch's favour, fell to the share of Charles Brandon, 
Duke of Suffolk, who chanced at the time to be in especial grace with 
his despotic master. Afterwards, in the reign of Elizabeth, it passed into 
the hands of Sir Thomas Leigh, and by him the estate was considerably 
augmented, for he purchased morel and in the neighbourhood, and upon the 
site of the Abbey erected a spacious mansion, a considerable portion of which 
is still remaining. His great-grandson was created a Baron by Charles the 
First, with the title of Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh ; and if attachment could 
give a claim to such a distinction, it was certainly merited by Sir Thomas, 
for his loyalty continued as firm as ever in the utmost extremity of his 
master's fortunes, and the same feeling was inherited by his descendants till 
the last Lord Leigh died near the close of the eighteenth century. The 
estate then passed to his only sister, the Hon. Mary Leigh, at whose 
decease, in 1806, the property devolved on the Leighs of Adlestrop, in 
Gloucestershire, and is now enjoyed by Chandos, Lord Leigh, the 
present head of this branch of the ancient and eminent House of Leigh 
— a nobleman of distinction as a Poet. 

The mansion, which we have been thus describing in its various for- 
tunes, is situated in a beautiful and fertile part of the county. Through 
the grounds, rendered yet more picturesque by venerable woods, flows 
the river Avon, but so much increased beyond its usual width as to de- 
serve the epithet of magnificent. A large fragment of the structure 
raised upon the expulsion of the monks is still to be seen, and even some 
portions belonging to a yet remoter period, amongst which the most 
prominent feature was a gatehouse of the old abbey. This last still re- 
mained to the antiquarian's delight until 1814, but a plan was even then 
ripening for the demolition of this venerable relique, which according to 
all accounts was built by Robert de Hockele, the sixteenth abbot, and 
had in the outer front a large escutcheon of stone in memory of Henry 
the Second, the founder of the abbey. 

We are constantly being reminded, while travelling among the old 
English mansions, of how much that was once great and glorious has long 
since passed away. Sometimes the admonition comes in the shape of an 



X INTRODUCTION. 

antique fragment, which is yet allowed to form a portion of a modern 
wall ; but more frequently it comes from our learning that the building 
we admire stands on the site of a demolished castle, or of an abbey that 
has been swept away by the hands of the desolator. Often too the ap- 
pellation of abbey will yet remain clinging to the modern edifice as we 
shall find in Cieengestee Abbey, Gloucestershire, founded in 1117 by 
Henry the First, for canons regular of the Augustine order. The hand of 
Bluff King Hal — and it never was a light one — fell here with even more 
than its usual weight. On granting this part of his church spoil to 
Roger Basinge, he commanded that all the buildings within the abbey 
precincts should be pulled down and carried away, and so punctually 
was this Gothic mandate obeyed, that nothing now remains of the abbey 
or its adjuncts except the almonry gate, the spital gate, and a large barn. 
In course of time it reverted to the crown, and Queen Elizabeth finally 
sold it to Richard Master, her Physician of the chamber, who erected a 
mansion upon the site of the abbey. This also was pulled down in 
1772, when a new house was built, which is inhabited by Miss Master, 
a direct descendant from Elizabeth's physician. 

Feampton Couet in the same county, must not be passed over without 
some notice, if it were only to record it as being the seat of a distinguished 
branch of the Cliffords. The name itself will be sufficiently familiar to 
every reader of Shakspeare, but the poet's hero, who played so conspicu- 
ous a part in the wars of the white and red roses, belonged to another 
branch of the family. 

From Gloucestershire to Devon, although a tolerably long route in the 
maps, is a short flight for the imagination, which like the electric tele- 
graph would almost seem to annihilate both space and time. Let us 
then fancy ourselves in the manor of Kenton, before the walls of Pow- 
deeelajm Castle, erected during the feudal ages for protecting the adjacent 
lands and vassals from the incursions of rival Barons. Upon the death 
of John de Powderham, in the time of the first Edward, it fell by escheat 
or otherwise, to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who gave it, 
with his daughter Margaret in marriage, to Hugh Earl of Devon ; and 
he again bestowed it upon his son Sir Peter Courtenay, about the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth century. From this time it -shifted from one 
to another like the cards in the hands of a juggler, and there really is 
something curious in following these changes, effected now by purchase 
and now by marriages, till the wheel of fortune had gone full round, and 
the Courtenays once again became possessed of their original estate. In 
1538 it devolved to the crown, on the attainder of Henry Courtenay, 
Marquess of Exeter, for while the feudal system prevailed it was to be 



A RAxMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XI 

expected that once in two or three generations the head of any noble 
family would die upon the scaffold ; in the reign of Elizabeth it was sold 
to Lord Clifton ; in the reign of James the First, the new purchaser re- 
sold it to Sir Warwick Hele ; shortly afterwards it fell to Sir Edward 
Hungerford, in right of his wife ; in the reign of Charles the Second, Sir 
Edward parted with it to the Duke of Albemarle ; in the reign of Queen 
Anne, it came into the hands of Lord Granville ; in 1712, it was again 
purchased into the original family, by Sir William Courtenay, Bart. 

This castle is beautifully situated on the banks of the Exe, not more 
than three miles from its confluence with the British Channel. At high 
water the river in this part is full a mile and a half broad, the castle 
windows commanding a magnificent view of the ocean to the west, and 
of the shipping as it comes up to Topsham. The grounds, moreover, are 
unusually extensive. They embrace a circumference of nearly ten miles, 
in which is comprised a large park well stocked with deer, besides planta- 
tions, shrubberies, lawns, and pleasure grounds. Nature in fact has done 
everything to render this one of the most enchanting spots in England, 
but the antiquary can hardly be expected to sympathize with the taste 
which has suggested the modern improvements upon the old edifice. 
Up to the year 1752 it still retained a portion of its original castellated 
form ; but since then the machicolated gateway with its formidable 
portcullis has disappeared, the high turrets and massive embattlements 
have given way to what is called classic architecture, and many additions 
have been made to the north wing, adding much no doubt to the con- 
venience of the inmates, but greatly to the discomfort of those, who, like 
ourselves, are especial admirers of ancient Gothicism. To be sure we may 
in reply be met with the " quip modest" as Touchstone was when he 
quarrelled with the cut of the courtier's beard, and received for answer, 
that the wearer of the beard " cut it to please himself;" but though we 
do not dispute this right, we must still maintain our own privilege of 
grumbling at the use of it. 

Another memorable feature in this county is Bboadhembury Grange, 
the seat of the old and distinguished family of Drewe.* The property 

* The ancient and knightly family of Drew, originally of Drewscliff, co. Devon, 
descends in a direct line, from Drogo or Dru, a noble Norman (son of Walter 
de Ponz, and brother of Eichard, ancestor of the Cliffords), who accompanied his 
kinsman, William the Conqueror, to England. The senior line is now represented 
by Edward Simcoe Drewe, Esq., of the Grange, co. Devon, and the chief de- 
rivative branches are seated in Ireland — viz., the Drews of Meanus, co. Kerry; of 
Strand House, Youghal; of Drewsboro', co. Clare, &s. 



XH INTRODUCTION. 

appertained originally to the Abbey of Dunkeswell, to which monastery 
extensive lands in the neighbourhood belonged ; and was purchased 
from Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, grandson of the grantee, 
by Edward Drewe, Esq., of Sharpham, an eminent lawyer of the time of 
Elizabeth, Recorder of London and Queen's Serjeant. His son, Sir 
Thomas Drewe, Knt., erected the present structure in the form of an I, 
in compliment to James I., in whose reign it was built. The mansion 
has since undergone some alterations, but one remarkable chamber, 
wainscoted with carved oak, of very rich and elaborate design, and skil- 
ful workmanship, is still in perfect preservation, and presents a speci- 
men, perhaps unequalled, of the richly decorated withdrawing room of 
the time of the first James. The Royal Arms and initials, surmount 
the chimney piece ; and amongst the various ornaments, are the heraldic 
bearings of the builder, Sir Thomas Drewe, and of the family of his wife, 
the Moores of Odiham, Hants. The Grange is situated in a country 
not a little peculiar from its small enclosures, which gives to the whole 
landscape the appearance of numerous gardens, the largest field seldom 
exceeds fourteen or fifteen acres, and these are fenced in with strong 
dyked hedges, while the neighbouring avenues and approaches abound 
in Scotch and silver firs, many of them measuring in girth from six feet 
four inches to six feet ten, and some being of yet greater dimensions. 

We now come into Nottinghamshire, by a route which, if studied 
upon the maps, will seem somewhat capriciously chosen, as indeed it is 
— and here we pause awhile at Staunton Hall. This mansion stands 
in Belvoir Vale, at the extreme end of the county, and in early times 
belonged to the Stauntons. Upon the failure of male descendants in 
that line, the marriage of the heiress transferred the estate to the family 
of the Charltons, and the last surviving daughter of this union left it to 
her second cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth Aspinshaw, on condition that she 
should assume the name and bear the arms of Staunton only. The 
mansion is large and handsome, while the neighbouring land is in many 
respects exceedingly valuable. 

Another relique of ancient times in this county is Welbeck Abbey, 
originally founded in Henry the Second's reign, for Praemonstratension 
canons. Like all other institutions of the same kind, it passed into 
several hands at the dissolution, and in 1604, it was converted into a 
private residence, by Sir Charles Cavendish, a younger brother to Wil- 
liam, the first Earl of Devonshire. Upon his decease it was inherited by 
his son, the Duke of Newcastle, no less famous for his loyalty than for 
his horsemanship. Eventually it devolved by marriage to the Earl of 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. Xlll 

Oxford, from whom it passed to the Bentincks, his sole surviving daugh- 
ter having wedded with one of that family. Some remains of the Abbey 
may still he traced in the cellar-arches ; an old chapel also was doubt- 
less part of the original edifice ; and it is said the sepulchral monu- 
ments have not been destroyed, but are only hid from sight in some of 
the chambers by hangings and wainscot panels. 

There is a chapter in an old book of travels, the name of which we 
have forgotten, headed, " Rejrtiles — Of these there are none in this part 
of the world." Now this precisely is our case with Tregony Castle, in 
Cornwall — there is no such place ; but then we have an advantage over 
the old traveller, inasmuch as his reptiles never did exist, whereas, 
Tregony Castle was actually once in being, though there are no longer 
any remains of it ; and we know from sufficient authority, that the pile 
was built by John, Earl of Cornwall, at the time Richard, the lion-hearted, 
was in Palestine, amusing himself with killing Saracens, and, if the ro- 
mancer of those days speak truth, with eating them into the bargain. 
The story, though often told both in prose and verse, is so good in its 
way, that we will venture to " scale it a little more." It seems that 
the doughty king, upon nearly recovering from a severe fit of illness in 
Palestine, conceived a great longing for pork, but this was a difficult 
meat to come by, in a land where swine were held in special abhorrence. 
The royal cooks were sorely dismayed in consequence, as well knowing 
that their master was not likely to admit of any such excuse ; what he 
commanded must be done, possible or impossible, and woe betide the 
unlucky varlet, who should plead so poor a thing as reason in opposi- 
tion to his wishes — " if he did, he might die." In this dilemma, a crafty 
old Knight advised the head-cook to 

" Take a Saracen young and fat, 
In haste let the thief be slain, 
Opened, and his skin off flayn ; 
And sodden full hastily 
With powder and with spicery, 
And with saffron of good colour." 

So said, so done. This delicate dish, made exactly after the Knight's 
recipe, was placed before Richard, who found it so much to his taste, 
and ate so greedily of it, that the carver could not keep pace with him, 
gnawing the bones in a way that did more credit to his appetite than his 
manners. Therefore the Knight's plan had succeeded admirably ; but 
the next day, after a hard fight with the paynim, the king took a fancy 



Xiv INTRODUCTION. 

for tasting the head of that same pig, whose flesh he had found so re- 
lishing. 

" Quod (said) the cook, that head I ne have. 
Then said the king, so God me save, 
But (unless) I see the head of that swine, 
Forsooth thou shalt lesen thine." 

Finding there was no help for it, the terrified cook produced the Sara- 
cen's head, and falling upon his knees, made a piteous cry — 

" Lo, here the head ! my lord, mercy ! " 

Instead of being wrath at the cheat put upon him, Richard inconti- 
nently burst into a fit of laughter, and roundly swore there was no fear of 
starving when Saracen flesh had so much savour in it, and the bones 
afforded such sweet picking. From the moment he seems to have made 
up his mind to eat his way, as well as fight it, up to the walls of Jeru- 
salem. Craving the reader's pardon for this little digression, we return 
to the point from which we started. 

Tregony Castle was situated at the lower end of the town of Tregony, 
a little below the hospital, and we learn from ancient records that it still 
existed in the reign of Edward the Sixth. The manor belonged at a 
very early period to the Pomeroys, and upon the extinction of their 
male line in the time of Elizabeth, it passed with its heiress to the Pen- 
kevils, by the same sort of change that we have seen in so many other 
instances. During the reign of Charles the First it again fell into a new 
line, being purchased by Hugh Boscawen, ancestor of the Right Hon. 
Lord Falmouth, who is the present possessor. 

We now pass into Somersetshire, where, it being necessary to con- 
fine ourselves to one or two objects amidst so many worthy of notice, 
we select Montacute House, or rather take it as being the first that 
presents itself to memory. This estate has for several centuries belonged 
to the Phelips, who, like so many others of our old families, came 
over with William the Conqueror, and obtained large grants of land 
from that able soldier but unprincipled politician, for the assistance 
they afforded him in subjugating the country. The original settlement 
of the Phelips's was in Wales, but in the fourteenth century they migrated 
into Somersetshire, when they lived for many years at Barrington. The 
hall itself, which is built entirely of a brown stone found on the estate, 
was commenced in 1550, and as building did not proceed in those days 
with the steam-like rapidity that characterises modern times, it was not 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XV 

completed until 1601 ; but its substantialness when done, and the rich- 
ness of the ornaments, made it a splendid specimen of Elizabethan archi- 
tecture. Its outlines present the form of the Roman letter E, in com- 
pliment no doubt to Elizabeth, for Sir Edward Phelips, by whom it was 
raised, had the good fortune to be a Queen's serjeant, a position which 
of course did not diminish his loyalty to his maiden mistress. The 
eastern or principal front of this immense pile is one hundred and seventy 
feet long, the wings are twenty-eight feet in width, and the whole is as 
rich as human art could make it, with mullions, battlements, and all the 
multiplied creations of the Gothic fancy, or rather of the eastern, for 
there can, we suspect, be little doubt now-a-days of the Persian origin of 
the so-called Gothic architecture. But if the Serjeant loved shew, he 
also exercised hospitality upon a scale of no less magnificence, and various 
inscriptions in different parts of the building give ample testimony to 
this feeling. Over the principal door we read, 

" Through this wide-opening gate 
None come too early, none return too late." 

Over the north porch the weary traveller is met by this pithy and 
significant invitation — 

" And yours, my friend." 

And on one of the lodges he will find himself greeted by an old saw, 
no less expressive of the owner' hospitable spirit — 

" Welcome the coming, 
Speed the parting guest." 

The ancient manor of Alfoxton, also in Somersetshire, need not detain 
us long. It would be a waste of time to detail the many owners who 
possessed it in succession up to the reign of Henry the Fifth, when it 
was sold to Richard Popham of Porlock. His grand-daughter, Joan, 
was twice married, and having a son by either husband, the fortunate 
widow — for she survived them both — gave a rare instance of maternal 
prudence and affection in dividing her property between the sons of 
her two marriages, and thus preventing all disputes. Alfoxton she be- 
queathed to the offspring of her second nuptials, and it is now possessed 
by her lineal descendant, Langley St. Albyn, Esq. 

Three places in Northamptonshire next demand our attention — 
Rockingham Castle, Burghley House, and Delapre. 

In the time of the Conqueror, Rockingham Castle, according to 
Domesday Book, was a mere waste ; in the reign of Edward the First it 



INTRODUCTION. 



had become a forest thirty miles long and eight miles broad ; in the 
present day it is one of the noblest woodlands of the kingdom, and 
comprises about eleven thousand acres. The Castle itself was built by 
William the First, and continued to be a frequent place of residence 
with our early kings, probably from the security of its position, for it 
stands in the forest upon the top of a hill, the declivity of which is 
occupied by the town. Originally it had a large and strong keep with 
double embattled walls and numerous towers, though even when Leland 
described them they were rapidly falling into decay. During the civil 
wars, the Castle was garrisoned for the King against the Parliament- 
arians, but like its defenders, suffered not a little in the royal service. 
There, too, it was that William Rufus held council with all the Bishops 
and Abbots of England, how to end the misunderstanding between 
himself and Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury ; and many other 
historical recollections belong to this interesting edifice. After having 
long served for the abode of kings, it devolved to the Earls of Albemarle, 
with whom it remained till the time of Henry the Eighth, when it became, 
and has since continued to be, the principal seat of the Watsons. In 
1644, this last-named family was ennobled in the person of Sir Lewis 
Watson, who was made Baron Rockingham, of Rockingham Castle, for 
services rendered to Charles during the great civil war. In the reign of 
George the First, the Watsons advanced yet another step in the British 
peerage, the representative of the house in that day being created 
Viscount Sondes and Earl of Rockingham. 

Burghley House is about a mile from Stamford. It was built by the 
celebrated Lord Burleigh, on the site of a minster called Burghe, and is 
a brilliant specimen of the Elizabethan style of architecture, in which 
the general plan was after the Gothic school as it prevailed in the reign of 
Henry the Eighth, while the ornamental parts were borrowed from Italy, 
according to a taste which had then newly arisen. So far as magnitude 
in the whole mass, and a profuse minuteness in the decorations can make 
any place worthy of notice, Burghley House in the highest degree 
deserves attention. The principal front, which looks to the north, is 
nearly two hundred feet in extent ; at each corner are turrets surmounted 
by octangular cupolas, and terminated by vanes ; a parapet goes round 
the whole building in a series of open work, consisting of arches sup- 
ported by balustrades with obelisks, interspersed with the armorial 
ensigns of the family ; and the ascent to the porch, which opens to the 
hall, is by nine semicircular steps. The court measures one hundred and 
ten feet by seventy feet, crossed by paved walks, that divide it into four 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XVII 

grass-plats. To the genuine antiquary, however, the most interesting 
parts are the glimpses of the old minster, which shew themselves in 
divers fragments in the hall, chapel, and kitchen, upon the eastern side 
of the edifice. 

Delapre Abbey, the last of our Northamptonshire triad, was in its 
origin a house of Cluniac nuns, called the Abbey de Pratis, or, De la Pre, 
and was founded by an Earl of Northampton in the reign of King Stephen. 
At the dissolution, the last Abbess, who had governed her flock for thirty 
years, found interest enough to obtain a royal charter for the continuance of 
her convent. But the old lady seems to have got a hint from some friend 
at court, that although she had thus the favour granted to her, yet as the 
mob orator said to his friends in Coriolanus, " it was a power she had no 
power to do," accordingly she resigned her trust into the hands of Dr. 
Landon, the royal commissioner, greatly to the satisfaction of Henry, who 
grasping at the prize, pronounced the abbess to be " a gudde agyd woman," 
and her house to be "in a gudde state." What was of more importance 
he rewarded this prudent subservice to his wishes, by bestowing upon her a 
pension of forty pounds per annum. 

In the thirty-fourth year of his reign, Henry resigned the spoil he had 
thus obtained, and granted the site of the monastery, with certain demesne 
lands, to John Mershe. In the reign of Elizabeth we find this property 
held by the Tates, from whom it passed by marriage to the family of 
Clarke of Hardingstone ; and afterwards it came to the Bouveries, in which 
family it still remains. 

The course of our narrative — or, we should rather say the caprice of 
fancy — now leads us to the county of Durham, of which Raby Castle 
forms so important a feature. Some parts of this edifice manifestly 
belong to the Anglo-Saxon times, but the chief portion was built by John 
de Neville, 1379, he having obtained a license for that purpose from the 
then Bishop of Durham. It occupies a rising ground, its foundation 
being upon a rock, and is surrounded by an embattled wall, which contains 
within its circumference about two acres. There is an entrance on the 
north through a gateway defended by two square towers ; a second on the 
west, the arch of which is groined, and has a gate with portcullis at each 
end ; and a third has been made in a more modern style, leading to 
the hall. At irregular intervals are strong bulwarks, which have 
been named, after their respective founders, the Clifford and Bulmer 
towers. The kitchen, from its ample size and curious arrangements, shews 
that the stout barons took no less heed to their stomachs than to their 
defences, and had as much relish for the good things of life as any modern 



INTRODUCTION. 



citizen. It is thirty feet square, and besides having rive windows is lighted 
from the centre of the arched roof, while a gallery runs round the whole 
interior. Three chimneys serve for vents to as many furnaces, and the 
meats prepared upon this enormous scale were conveyed to the banquetting 
room by narrow passages cut out in the massive walls. The grounds 
correspond in extent and beauty with the fine old castle, the whole being 
worthy of the powerful Nevilles, to whom it belonged, till forfeited by 
Charles, the last Earl, for joining the northern rebellion against Elizabeth. 
Her successor, King James, consigned the estate to certain London 
citizens for sale, and from them it was bought by Sir Henry Vane, whose 
descendant in the reign of George the Second was created Viscount 
Barnard and Earl of Darlington by letters patent. In his Lordship's re- 
presentative Henry, Duke of Cleveland, K.G., Raby Castle now vests. 

Lumley Castle, though with fewer historical recollections cleaving to 
it, is yet too picturesque, from its situation, not to arrest the attention of 
the passing traveller. Towards the east it hangs on the brow of a hill, 
overlooking a deep, well wooded valley, and being separated from the 
sheer descent only by a curtain between the castle walls and the edge of 
the precipice, below which runs the little river Beck, on its way to the 
Wear. Above this defence the edifice rises to the height of three stories, 
having mullioned windows strongly barred with iron. The centre is here 
formed by a stately entrance tower, with machicolated gallery, flanked 
by turrets. But indeed the whole of this front has undergone little, if 
any, alteration from the time when it was first raised in Edward the First's 
reign, by Sir Robert Lumley, or perhaps when it was enlarged by his son, 
Sir Marmaduke. On the west side, at the base of the eminence, flows the 
Wear, and continues its course towards the south, where the front pre- 
sents a more modern aspect. There also — on the west, that is — the 
principal gateway is seen, the entrance to which is by a double flight of 
steps, leading to a platform that fills the entire space between the towers. 
The prospect from this side is eminently beautiful. It is now the seat of 
John Lumley Savile, Earl of Scarborough. 

The pleasure which the traveller derives from our next county, Staf- 
fordshire, will arise less from these remains so delightful to the antiqua- 
rian, than from modern elegance and modem associations. With all our 
love for the olden times, we are not so bigotted as to suppose that genius 
or desert are like the shield of Martin Scriblerus, that degenerated into a 
mere pot-lid, when the ancient gerugo was scoured off it, but can pause 
with as much pleasure before the walls of Trentham Hall, however 
modern, as before some grey-headed castle, that dates from the time of 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XIX 

the Conqueror. As a building, it borrows nothing from the times gone 
by, having been erected little more than a century, and even since then 
it has undergone considerable changes and improvements by the first 
Marquess of Stafford, from designs by Holland. The estate takes its 
name from the beautiful river, which winds through the park, and has 
so often been celebrated both in song and story. 

It is not often that the old ruin and the more recent mansion remain, 
like the great grandfather of some family and his infant descendant in the 
third degree, to mark the contrast between the past and present. Gene- 
rally speaking the new building occupies the complete site of the old one 
that has been swept away, or at best it retains a few fragments mixed up — 
awkardly enough — with its modern lightness. Alton Abbey is one of the 
exceptions to this remark. The ruins of the castle still remain standing 
upon an almost perpendicular rock, the walls being of prodigious thickness 
and extent. At the foot of this precipice, in a lovely valley, flows the 
little river Churnet, and adds not a little to the beauty of the scene as it 
winds its quiet way through the green herbage. The precise time when 
the castle was first built can no longer be ascertained, but it is supposed to 
have been soon after the Conquest, the presumed date of so many similar 
erections. In succession it has belonged to the Verdons, the Furnivals, 
and to the illustrious Sir John Talbot, the victor in forty battles, and who 
was most worthily created Earl of Shrewsbury. His death too was as 
glorious as his life, for he was killed by a cannon ball at Chastillon sur 
Dordon, in 1453. And what better end could a soldier wish for? surely 
to live into a drivelling dotage, like the great Marlborough, or even to 
pass away by lingering disease, going out like the snuff of a wasted candle, 
is a sorry catastrophe for a hero ; the very bathos of life's tragedy, when 
its previous scenes have possessed the noblest and deepest interest. 

The modern mansion, which has inherited the ancient name, is a 
splendid building though somewhat irregular in form, and is placed 
amidst grounds of considerable extent and beauty in themselves, rendered 
yet more interesting by the surrounding landscape. In architectural 
beauty, and grandeur of design, Alton Towers is a worthy memorial of the 
taste and princely munificence of the present Earl of Shrewsbury, the lineal 
descendant and representative of the renowned Talbot. 

Kent has been called, and with much reason, the garden of England ; 
but this applies only to its picturesque hop-grounds, its fertile corn-fields, 
and its abundant orchards, for in comparison with some other counties 
it can hardly be termed the garden of antiquaries. Of the dry antiquarian 
fruit it produces, we have culled three specimens, Knole Park, Leeds 

c 2 



INTRODUCTION. 



Castle, and Mereworth, each of them in a greater or less degree de- 
serving notice. 

Knole itself stands in a beautiful park, a short distance from Seven 
Oaks, and from the time of the Conquest, has been set down among the 
remarkable places of England, partly from its natural beauties, but still 
more from the associations belonging to it. After having been possessed 
by many illustrious families in succession, it was purchased by Thomas 
Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, who rebuilt the house, enclosed the 
park, and at his death in 1486, left it to his late see for ever — for ever ! 
a phrase that is constantly recurring in testament after testament, as if it 
were possible for a few mouldering bones to dictate from the grave an 
eternal pathway to the feet that are trampling on them. Surely the little 
real influence that any individual exercises even in life, upon the great mass, 
might convince men how small a chance they stand of ruling the world 
when they are dead. And so it turned out in the present instance. By the 
time Cranmer had succeeded to the Archbishoprick, the face of things had 
altered greatly for the worse as regarded the interests of the Church. 
Henry the Eighth had discovered that it would be very convenient 
to get possession of the Church-property, in the pursuit of which 
laudable and honest scheme he raised such a storm about the ears 
of the priests, that Cranmer, prudent man as he was, deemed it best 
to do as the seaman does when in the tempest he flings a part of his 
cargo overboard that he may save the remainder. In this wise mood he 
resigned Knole to the crown, in whose possession it remained till Edward 
the Sixth granted it to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, afterwards created 
Duke of Northumberland. Every one must recollect how this unfortunate 
nobleman supported the claims of Lady Jane Grey to the throne 
in opposition to queen Mary, and being defeated, lost both estate and life. 
It thus, upon his attainture, devolved to the Queen, who gave it to Cardinal 
Pole, but when the latter died it once more reverted to the crown. Eli- 
zabeth having succeeded to the throne, made a grant of this estate to Sir 
Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, in which character, with 
little to recommend him, he has obtained a conspicuous place in English 
history. In a few years, however, he rendered it up to her again, where- 
upon she gave it to Thomas Sackville, Esq., who was subsequently created 
Earl of Dorset. In all probability he owed this especial grace to his 
having intermarried with the Boleyns, and thus becoming related to the 
royal family, though for the most part the maiden Queen was no great 
friend to the matrimonial ceremony amongst her courtiers; she seemed 
in general to look upon it as sort of treason committed against her 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXI 

sovereign beauty, and if the law provided no sufficient punishment for the 
offence, she was often well disposed to supply such deficiency by an ample 
exercise of the royal prerogative. 

Many detached fragments of the olden times may be found in this 
mansion, illustrative of the manners and habits of our forefathers. In 
the chimney of the great hall is a very curious pair of ancient dogs, a 
rude sort of grate made of two cross bars of irons, such as even now may 
be seen in some very old farm-houses, except that in this case the dogs are 
remarkable for their elaborate workmanship. In the same part of the 
building a dais, or raised floor, for the host and his superior guests, is 
still to be seen, as also the long tables originally constructed for the game 
of shuffleboard. The windows, too, of this hall, yet retain their old 
stained glass, adding not a little to what we may perhaps be allowed to 
call the cheerful gloom of antiquity. The epithet does indeed seem to 
imply a contradiction ; but, as ancient Pistol says of the word accommodate, 
" it is an exceeding good phrase," and will serve to convey our meaning, 
better perhaps than a phrase of more scrupulous correctness. 

Knole at present belongs to Mary, Countess Amherst, eldest daughter 
and co-heiress of the third Duke of Dorset. 

Leeds Castle is a place, in some respects, of yet deeper interest. It 
is about five miles from Maidstone, and is bounded by a moat covering 
nearly three acres of ground, while within its walls is as much more. As 
opposed to the military skill of the feudal age it must have been well 
nigh impregnable. Three causeways afford a narrow and defensible access 
from the north, south-west, and south-east, leading to the outworks of a 
gateway, which, judging from what remains, was fortified with unusual 
skill. These outworks were most probably erected by Edward the First, 
and contain within their round the castle-mill. So late only as 1822 there 
existed two square towers on the right of the base court, the northernmost 
of which had at one time a communication with the moat, protected by a 
portcullis, but in that year they were pulled down. The whole fabric, as 
it now stands, shews clearly enough by its various styles that it has been 
the work of different ages, even if we did not know that such were the 
fact, both from chronicle and tradition. The original castle was raised by 
Robert de Crevequer, who obtained the manor from William Rufus ; but 
after the usual fashion of those turbulent times it was ere long forfeited 
and granted away, in what, from its frequent recurrence, may be called 
the regular order of things. Edward the First, who was an able soldier, 
soon perceived the strength of the fortress, and grew so jealous of it, that 
the possessor, William de Leyborce, considered it advisable to surrender 



XX11 INTRODUCTION. 

his stronghold to the crown before it was taken from him, and perhaps 
with worse consequences. By Edward the Second, this valuable possession 
was again alienated from the crown, he having given it to his favourite, 
Lord Badlesmere, who repaid this and other benefits by joining the Earl 
of Lancaster in his attempt to put down Piers Gaveston. If anything 
could have rendered rebellion yet more odious in the King's eyes it would 
have been such an object, for, as was earnestly understood, he valued this 
new favourite more perhaps than the crown itself. But other grounds of 
provocation were not long wanting, and these were afforded by Lady 
Badlesmere, who seems to have been filled with the same disloyal spirit 
as her husband. While the latter was absent with the other barons 
engaged against Hugh de Spenser, it so chanced that Queen Isabel coming 
that way demanded hospitality at Leeds Castle for the night. The demand 
was not only refused, but several of the royal servants were killed in the 
attempt to force an entrance. Enraged at this affront offered to his 
consort, and reflectively to himself, Edward besieged the castle, and 
gaining possession of it after a severe struggle, he hanged the castellan, 
and committed Lady Badlesmere with her family to the Tower. The 
next year Lord Badlesmere shared the same fate as his castellan, but 
with some improvements, for after being hanged at Blean, near Canterbury, 
his head was cut off and fixed upon Burgate in that city. 

The castle, which had sustained much damage from the siege, was re- 
paired and considerably improved by William de Wykeham, who was 
constituted by Edward the Third, chief warden and surveyor, with full 
powers for that purpose. In the reign of Henry the Fifth, the castle 
attained yet greater notoriety from being the place where that monarch 
imprisoned his mother in-law, Joan of Navarre, for her traitorous attempt 
against his life. There, too, the Duchess of Gloucester underwent her 
trial for sorcery and witchcraft. At a later period Edward the Sixth 
granted the fee simple of it to Sir Anthony St. Leger, and then after 
having in the usual way with such mansions, passed it from one family to 
another, it came at length, as a bequest from his uncle, Robert Lord Fair- 
fax, to the Rev. Denny Martin, D.D. and is now possessed by Chakles 
Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P. 

The oldest part of the castle, as it appears at present, is the cellars, erected 
probably in the time of Henry the Third. At one period there was a Nor- 
man entrance to them, formed by a plain semicircular work of Caen stone, 
but which was covered up in 1822, when the southernmost of the two 
great divisions of the castle was pulled down and rebuilt. A draw-bridge 
originally supplied the means of communication between the old castle 

t 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXUl 

and this part of the building ; but it was long ago replaced by timbers 
fixed and floored, which at the time of the alterations just mentioned, 
were in their turn taken away, and a stone bridge of two arches substituted 
in their place. Some parts of the building date unquestionably from the 
reign of Edward the First, others from that of Edward the Third, and a 
v ery great portion was built by Sir H. Guldeford, in the reign of Henry 
the Eighth. Since 1822, many alterations have been made, which must 
be considered as allowable improvements, the old building having so 
materially lost its distinctive character that the changes have been rather 
wrought upon a modern than an ancient fabric. After all its mutations 
the whole presents an appearance which may be fairly styled both noble 
and imposing. 

The last place that need detain us in Kent is Mere worth Castle, 
about seven miles from Maidstone, an elegant mansion erected by the 
seventh Earl of Westmoreland. It stands upon a gentle eminence, occupy- 
ing the site of an ancient castle, which had belonged to the Lords Aberga- 
venny. In the ground below, a little stream winds its course to join the 
Medway, amidst slopes and undulations that are highly cultivated on all 
sides. 

At an early period Mereworth gave name to the family possessing it, 
for in Edward the Third's reign, we find mention made of John de Mere- 
worth, sheriff of Kent, and it remained in his line for two centuries, when 
it fell to Malmaines, Bohuns, and Bambres, who raised a new castle. 
From the Earls of Arundel the estate passed to the Lords Abergavenny 
and Despencer, and afterwards devolved with the title of Despencer to the 
first Earl of Westmorland. Upon the death of the seventh Earl in 1762 
without issue, he was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Francis Dashwood, 
Bart., both in the estate and title of Despencer, which are now the in- 
heritance of the Right Hon. Baroness Le Despencer. 

It is seldom that the antiquarian traveller allows his course to be ar- 
rested by modem buildings, any more than the epicure would pause in a 
well-filled wine-cellar upon a pipe of new wine, when so many others of 
older vintage were demanding his attention. But Shotover House, in 
Oxfordshire, the handsome residence of G-. V. Drury, Esq., (the re- 
presentative of the famous and historic family of Drury) has too many 
recollections attached to the site for it to be passed over without 
mention. It is not so very long ago that Shotover was the residence of 
Mickle, the elegant translator of the Lusiad, and the neighbourhood can 
hardly be regarded with indifference when we know that it was a favourite 
haunt with Milton 



INTRODUCTION. 



About two miles from Banbury, and also in Oxfordshire, we come upon 
Broughton Castle, which in its wholeness, affords a striking example 
of the almost regal magnificence of the feudal barons. An old tower 
forms the entrance to the court, and the outer gate is still perfect, but there 
are no traces of the portcullis. There would appear also from the re- 
maining staples to have been two other gates. The most ancient part of 
the building is the eastern side, at the south-east angle of which is a small 
tower with loopholes for the discharge of arrows. The hall is of large 
dimensions, the passages are curiously arched, and the present dining-room 
has likewise a roof of arched stone. Beyond is a staircase of the same 
material, leading to what was once the chapel, with very ancient arms upon 
the window, but it is now used for a dressing-room. The eastern-side is 
supposed to have been built by the Broughtons, in the reign of one of 
the early Edwards ; the north front was erected by the Fiennes' in the 
year 1544. A broad and deep moat, which is crossed by a stone bridge of 
two arches, surrounds the whole. 

The manor of Broughton formerly belonged to the family of that name. 
It then became the property of the Wykehams, from whom it passed to 
Sir William Fiennes, Lord Save and Sele, upon his marriage with Mar- 
garet, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Wykeham, and is now pos- 
sessed by the Right Hon. Frederick Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes, 
thirteenth Lord Saye and Sele. 

A short step in our present mode of travelling will bring us to Helming- 
ham Hall, in Suffolk, the splendid seat of John Tollemache, Esq., M.P. 
The building, which is wholly of brick, bears undeniable marks of belonging 
to the time of Henry the Eighth, when the embattled mansion had suc- 
ceeded to the baronial castle. It is a quadrangle with a terrace and moat 
surrounding it, and stands in the midst of a park of about four hundred 
acres in extent, well stocked with deer, many of them remarkable for 
their size, and abounding with noble oaks which have long been celebrated 
as the finest in the county. To the credit of its successive owners, very 
few innovations have been made upon the old mansion ; by an annual 
stretch of forbearance, or by a kindly regard for other times, it has been 
allowed to retain the greater part of its ancient characteristics — its large 
bay windows, its embattled parapets, its gables terminated with richly 
wrought finials, and its chimneys ornamented with reticulated and in- 
dented mouldings. Once indeed some unlucky friend of improvement, 
who was no doubt shocked at the appearance of vulgar brick, covered the 
building with composition in order to make it look like stone ; but this 
sin against good taste was afterwards removed by the better judgment of 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES XXV 

one of his successors. Things were once again restored to their pristine 
state, and we are told that even now the draw-bridges on the east and south 
fronts continue to be raised every night as they used to be in the olden 
time. Much care has been taken to attract the wild fowls to the place so 
peculiarly fitted to their habits, and, as they are never disturbed, the moat 
as well as a small lake in the park is always crowded with them. 

From its earliest erection this Hall belonged to the Tollemaches, who 
long before the Norman Conquest possessed lands at Bentley in the same 
county, where, till very lately, this inscription might be seen in the old 
manor-house : — 

" When William the Conqueror reign'd with great fame, 
Bentley was my seat, and Tollemache was my name." 

Right pious folks too were these gallant Tollemaches, and so held when 
such a repute was not to be got by prayers and fastings alone, but must be 
purchased by devout largesses of land and gold to the church, which, it 
must be confessed, for the most part turned the popular bounty to excellent 
uses. Many a fair acre of glebe and pasture did the Tollemaches bestow 
on convent and monastery, whose inmates in requital prayed for their 
benefactors and fed the poor from their superabundance, till that royal 
plunderer, Henry the Eighth, appropriated to himself, with as little law as 
reason, all the church property in the kingdom. The family, however, had 
the less reason to complain of this royal intermission with their charities, 
as they themselves must soon afterwards have embraced the new faith, 
for we find Sir Lionel, the then head of the house, in high favour with 
Elizabeth, who was not likely to have shewn any particular grace to a 
Catholic. On one occasion, in 1651, the maiden Queen honoured 
him with a visit for five days, during which time she stood godmother to 
his son, and gave his mother a lute, still preserved as an heir-loom among 
the family reliques and curiosities. A descendant of this fortunate gentle- 
man married the heiress of the first Earl of Dysart, a title derived from 
the royal borough of that name in Fifeshire. Upon the decease of the 
last Earl without a child, the title devolved upon his sister, Lady 
Louisa Manners, the widow of John, eldest son of Lord William Manners, 
who in process of time was created Lord Huntingtower. 

In the same county we should notice, although it must be briefly, 
the fine old seat of Fljxton Hall, a handsome building erected in 1615, 
from a design by Sir Inigo Jones. It is now the property of Sir 
Robert Shafto Adair, Bart., having been purchased from the Wyburn 
family by William Adair, Esq. 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

In Lancashire we shall name only Teafford Hall, or, as it is some- 
times called, Trafford House, which stands in the park of the same name, 
watered by the Irwell. The original building has for the most part dis- 
appeared ; what still remains of it, composed of brick gables, is attached 
to the modern mansion, a handsome structure of free-stone, with a semi- 
circular front divided by columns. It is the residence of the Traffords, 
the descendants of the ancient Lords of Breton and Stretford. 

Sulham, in Berkshire, deserves perhaps more notice than the necessary 
conciseness of this hasty survey will permit us to bestow upon any place 
that is not particularly remarkable from its connection with the olden 
time. It lies six miles from Reading, between the Bath and Wallingford 
roads. At a very early period it was in the family of St. Philibert, from 
whom it passed to the Carews, next to their representatives, the Iwarbys 
and St. Johns, and finally to the family of the Wilders, who are its present 
owners. 

Belhus Park, in Essex, is a noble estate, nearly three miles in circum- 
ference, lying in a valley. It belongs to the parish of Aveley, and 
abounds in fine old oaks as well as many other forest trees, the beauty 
of the landscape being greatly heightened by a magnificent sheet of water. 
These grounds were first enclosed by Edward Barrett, who was knighted 
by James the First, and obtained a charter of free warren for his manor, 
a valuable privilege in those days, as it gave him a right to exclude any 
one from entering in pursuit of game, whatever might be his rank. In 
remote times the manor belonged to Sir Thomas Belhus, Knt., hut partly 
by marriage, and partly by purchase, it came into the possession of the 
Barretts. The mansion was rebuilt at an early part of Henry the Eighth's 
reign by John Barrett, an eminent civilian, but was afterwards greatly 
improved by Thomas Barrett Lennard, Lord Dacre, who carefully pre- 
served the original Tudor style of architecture in his alterations ; and this 
is the building which we see in the present day. 

Inclination would carry us to the lovely land of Hereford, rich in anti- 
quities and historic families, but space deters us from entering on so prolific 
afield — Hampton Court, Wigmore, Erdisley, Bodenham, Treago, Goodrich 
Castle, all rise on our memory. Many goodly mansions, too, of modern 
erection, ornament this celebrated county ; one in exquisite taste has 
just been finished, Pudleston Court, near Leominster, the seat of 
Elias Chad wick, Esq., late of S win ton Hall, Lancashire. 

The Vine, in Hampshire, about three miles from Basingstoke, is de- 
scribed by Leland, in his quaint language, as being one of the principal 
houses in goodly building of all Hampshire. It originally belonged to 




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A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXV11 

the family of the Sandys', who were first ennobled in the time of Henry 
the Eighth. From them it descended in 1754 to John Chute, Esq., the 
friend of Gray and Walpole, and it is now the property of William 
L. W. Chute, Esq., of Norfolk. The mansion was erected, in the 
reign of Henry the Eighth, by Lord Sandys, though it has since lost 
much of its Gothic character by various alterations, which, however, have 
added to its convenience as a dwelling-house. It stands in a soil of deep 
clay, abounding in wood, which extends northward over the boundary 
line of Berkshire, and if approached from Basingstoke, the traveller can- 
not fail to be surprised at the sudden change from the open chalky downs 
to the miry vale below. 

The transition from Hampshire to Surrey would scarcely offend the 
nicest sticklers for the dramatic unities ; the traveller may be in the one 
county before he has any notion that he has got out of the other ; and 
when here the first thing to attract his attention will be Claeemont Park, 
to which recent events have lent so painful an interest. The history of 
this place is shortly told. Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim, 
bought some land here, upon which he built a low brick house for his 
own residence, choosing for its site precisely such a spot as would have 
been selected by his Dutch ancestors, so notorious for planting their 
houses amidst dykes and marshes. Avoiding with the greatest care any 
of the near rising grounds, that would have tempted ordinary men, he 
pitched his tent upon a low flat area, whence it was impossible to get the 
slightest prospect. He soon however grew tired of his own work, which 
will probably to most people seem less strange than that he should have 
found a purchaser for so uninviting a retreat ; yet so it was ; Thomas 
Holies Pelham, then Earl of Clare, and who in 1715 was advanced to the 
dignity of Duke of Newcastle, took the estate off his hands. But the 
new owner had a singular passion for improving, and like the famous 
capability Brown, as he was called, would seem to have been never so 
happy as when by the magic of his own taste he was creating beauty from 
deformity. Setting to work with a good-will and courage that may 
be almost termed chivalrous, considering the very unpromising materials 
he had to deal with, he soon effected such changes as must have made 
the place scarcely recognizable by the dull spirit that had first planned 
it. The low brick house was built into a mansion, the grounds were 
extended by further purchases, and a large portion of the adjoining heath 
was enclosed and added to the estate. As time had left no fragments, no 
ruined castle nor mouldering abbey, the noble owner drew upon his own 
fancy and the modern trowel to supply the defect ; on a mount in the 



XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 

park he erected a building to resemble a castle, and as a castle would 
obviously be nothing without a name, he reversed the usual order of 
things, by which men take their titles from their estates, and christened 
the new fabric after himself, Clare — mont. Upon his death it was bought 
by the celebrated Lord Clive, who found the whole affair much too 
small for the grand notions he had brought with him from India. It was 
Gulliver in Lilliput. So forthwith he called in architects and masons, 
bricklayers and carpenters, men with pick-axes to pull down, and men 
with trowels to build up, and raised such a dust in the neighbourhood as 
perfectly blinded the eyes and ears of the natives, who had never been 
used to see things upon so large a scale. But his builder was a man of 
some judgment ; he had none of Sir John Vanbrugh's passion for flats and 
marshes, but on the contrary chose an excellent site for the new fabric, 
commanding as good a prospect as the country afforded. The liberality 
of the employer kept pace with the fancies of the architect; even the 
grounds were remodelled ; and upon the whole, it is said that upwards of 
a hundred thousand pounds were expended in bringing these comprehen- 
sive labours to a conclusion. When Lord Clive died, the property was 
bought by Lord Galway, who sold it to the Earl of Tyrconnel, and he 
again parted with it to Charles Rose Ellis, Esq. From him it was finally 
bought by the government as a residence for the lamented Princess 
Charlotte, upon her marriage with Prince Leopold. 

Baynards, like the seat we have just been describing, owes whatever 
interest it may possess to the natural beauties of the locality, and to what, 
by comparison, must be called modern associations. In the reign of 
Henry the Sixth, the then owner of it, William Sydney, obtained a royal 
license for emparking it ; but in after times it successively became the 
property of the Brays, and of Richard Evelyn the younger brother of 
John Evelyn, the celebrated author of the " Discourse on Forest Trees." 
He seems to have been deeply imbued with the fraternal taste for plant- 
ing, and though the soil of his estate is a cold sour clay t it must have 
been well adapted to the growth of oaks, for of these he raised a mul- 
titude, and with such success, that even in his own life time they con- 
tained, taking one with another, full three quarters of a load of timber 
in a tree. Manning, in his " History of Surry," to whom we are indebted 
for the leading facts of this record of Baynard, adds that "after his (Evelyn's) 
brother's death, they were all cut down and destroyed by the person 
who withheld the just possession of this estate from those to whom in 
honor and conscience it belonged." Since that time, however, he speaks 
of it as being at length disposed of, and expresses his satisfaction " at 



A KAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXIX 

its having fallen into the hands of the then possessor of it." For these 
details Manning refers to John Evelyn's letter to Mr. Aubrey, prefixed 
to the first volume of Aubrey's Antiquities of Surry; not a syllable, 
however, of the kind occurs in the edition of 1719, the letter mention- 
ing Baynards indeed, but very briefly, recording little more of it than that a 
pond was there of sixty acres, and that the soil was addicted to oaks, 
which attained an enormous size within fifty years only. Still, it is pos- 
sible some other edition may exist, in which this story is to be found, 
but we have seen none such, and the thing does not seem very likely. 
Upon the extinction of the male line of the Evelyns, Anne, the last of 
that name, married William Montague, the son of the Lord Chief Baron 
of the Exchequer, from whose heirs it was purchased by the first Lord 
Onslow, and has since become the property of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow, 
nephew of Lord Chancellor Thurlow. 

Close to the river Thames, about a mile from Richmond — that lovely 
sunny spot, so correctly named " Sheen," or " the beautiful," by our Saxon 
forefathers — stands Ham House, a recent construction ; at least it is such 
when we are speaking of the olden times of England. It was built in 1610 
as a residence for Henry, Prince of Wales, but underwent considerable 
alterations in the time of Charles the Second, when it was completely 
furiished by the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale. Here, too, was 
born their grandson, John, Duke of Argyll, equally celebrated as a 
soldier and a statesman. The stranger who has never visited this seat, 
will easily form an idea of its internal magnificence when he is told that 
even the bellows and brushes in some of the rooms are made of solid 
silver, or of solid filagree. The gardens, from all appearance, have been 
little altered since they were first formed, bearing all the marks of those 
times when the grand object was to supersede nature by art, or to make her 
look as little like herself as possible. Terrace above terrace slopes down 
to the river, enclosed by walls that are ornamented with a series of busts, 
continued to the principal facade ; in front is a colossal statue of Father 
Thames, and all the walks are distinguished by a perfect symmetry, that 
it must be owned is tame and monotonous. Sir Walter Scott, in an 
Essay on Landscape Gardening, has defended this artificial style with an 
eloquence and glow of fancy that may convince any one so long as he 
is under the influence of this arch-magician, who had the wonderful power 
of imparting his own brilliance to the least imaginative theme ; but once 
close the book, and, the spell being broken, formal walks, fraternal 
clumps of trees, and alleys made to match each other, will no longer be 
preferred to the simple and the natural, which characterise modern gar- 



XXX INTRODUCTION. 

dening, even though we should at times run a little wild in the pursuit 
of nature. 

Farnham Castle, also in Surrey, occupies an eminence on the north 
side of Farnham, and is supposed to have been erected in 1129, by Henry 
de Blois, brother of King Stephen. During the rebellion of the barons 
against Henry the Third, it was seized by their ally the French Dauphin, 
and in the course of these civil broils got demolished by the royal party, 
but was soon rebuilt with'a deep moat and donjon with the other usual ap- 
purtenances of a castellated building. In the great civil war it had the 
singular fate of being governed at different intervals by two poets ; for 
religious fanaticism in those days, like the fear of invasion by republican 
France in our own times, made all men soldiers. Sir John Denham, having 
secured it for the king's party in 1 642, was appointed governor of the 
place in requital for his good service. Then came Sir William Waller, 
the parliamentarian general, who blew up the defences and took the 
fortress, when the command of it was given by the parliament to George 
Withers, another poet, and of a more quaint and original genius than the 
royalist bard. A few years afterwards the committee of Derby House 
ordered it to be rendered incapable of defence, imposing upon the county 
the expense of demolition. The castle, in consequence, was nearly pulled 
to pieces, the glass, iron, lead, and timbers, that had gone to its con- 
struction, being taken by the men and officers in part payment of the arrears 
due to them. Next came the restoration of Charles ; the Cavaliers ob- 
tained once again the ascendancy, the church resumed her rights, or what 
at all events she had long been taught to consider as such, and in this 
general return to the old state of things, Farnham Castle was given back 
to the see of Winchester. It was, however, in too dilapidated a condi- 
tion to serve, as it then was, for an episcopal residence, and Bishop Mor- 
ley, it is said, expended full eight thousand pounds upon these ruins, so 
that in a short time they again rose, phcenix-like, stronger and more 
brilliant from their ashes. A considerable fragment of the oldest part 
of the castle still remains, and the entrance gate-way deserves to be par- 
ticularly pointed out, as retaining its ancient character. The foss has 
been either drained or allowed to become dry, and is planted with oaks. 
Internally the principal apartments underwent considerable alterations 
so far back as the time of Charles the Second, the contrasts between the 
styles of the different periods being too obvious to require any comment. 
The present bishop, who makes it his residence, has been at much ex- 
pense in improving both the mansion and the grounds belonging to it, 
but, with great taste and judgment, while laying out new roads and walks 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXXI 

in the park, he has left untouched a noble avenue of elms nearly three 
quarters of a mile long, which has not only in itself an imposing effect, 
but has a peculiar interest as a living specimen of times gone, or link as 
it were between us and the past. It may indeed be questioned whether 
the gnarled old oak, the growth of many ages, with decay at his heart 
while putting forth his green leaves, is not a more vivid remembrance of 
those that are gone than abbey or castle ruin. 

Formerly, there were two parks attached to this estate, the one called 
the Old, or Great Park, the other, the New, or Little Park. The first of 
these, containing about one thousand acres, was disforested in the reign 
of Charles the Second. The Little Park, consisting of about three- 
hundred acres, and adjoining the castle on the east side, still continues 
to be a woodland, which is rendered yet more picturesque by the 
Lodden running through it, from its well-head in the neighbouring 
country. 

Two miles from Guildford is LoseleyHall, the last place that we shall 
mention in Surrey. It is a venerable pile, and large as it now is, bears 
undeniable marks of having been at one time considerably larger. In 
the reign of Henry the Eighth, it was purchased by Christopher More, 
Esq., and remained in his family till 1689, when he died, leaving no 
nearer kin to claim the estate than three sisters. Of these, the two 
eldest died unmarried, and the youngest gave her hand, and with it the 
property of Loseley House, to Sir Thomas Molyneux, of Sefton, in 
Lancashire. 

It would be useless, as well as tedious, to record the various hands 
through which the mansion has passed since that time, or how one 
owner pulled down a turret, and another built up a chimney, according 
as whim or necessity might dictate ; but we cannot help remarking upon 
the very great passion of the family for moral maxims, which they in- 
scribed over window and portal, inside and outside, for the benefit of 
those who visited the place. Over the vestibule, for instance, now 
the butler's pantry, were placed three stone figures, from whose contra- 
dictory mottoes the sagacious wayfarer was no doubt expected to draw 
an edifying conclusion. To the left was Fortune treading upon a globe 
and holding a wheel, on which was written, Fortuna omnia ; to the right 
was Fate, grasping a celestial sphere, with the inscription, Non Fors, sed 
Fatum ; and in the middle was a figure with one foot on a wheel, and the 
other on a globe, pointing to the page of an open volume, wherein was 
written, Non Fors, nee Fatum. In addition to this learned conundrum, 



XXX11 INTRODUCTION. 

the traveller reads over the porch the following distich, explanatory of 
who would, and who would not, be welcome. 

" Invide, tangendi tibi limina nulla fucultas ; 
At tibi, amice, patent, janua, mensa, domus." 

Within the vestibule, above the hall-door, the same idea was repeated 
in a clumsy hexameter : — 

" Invidiam claudor, pateo sed semper amico." 

Over the kitchen door — a very appropriate place for such a motto — 
was an admonition to the visitor not to play the glutton : — 

" Fami, non gulae." 

Over the buttery was a similar caution, against excess in the matter 
of the wine cup : — 

" Siti, non ebrietati." 

Over the parlour-door was a significant hint, that the open- sesame to 
the lock, was a good character : — 

" Probis non pravis." 

And in the cornice of the great drawing-room, was a mulberry tree, 
having inscribed on one side : — 

" Moms tarde moriens." 
but on the other, — 

" Morum cito moriturum," 

which we need hardly say is a pun, and not a very clever one, upon the 
family name of More. 

The estate is now possessed by James More Molyneux, Esq. 

Had we time, Derbyshire would tempt our wanderings — Derbyshire, 
with its ancient Castles of Castleton and Codnor, with its time-honoured 
Halls of Haddon, Hardwick, South Winfield, Radborne, and Elvaston, 
and its stately edifices of Wingerworth, Willersley, Aston, Markeaton, 
and Calke Abbey. The last named stands on the site of a Convent of 
Austin Friars, which was granted in 1547 by King Edward VI., to John, 
Earl of Warwick. Subsequently, it became the seat of Roger Wensley, 
Esq., and eventually vested in the old and eminent family of Harpur of 
Swarkston, by whose representative, Sir John Harpur Crewe, Bart., 
Calke Abbey is now possessed. 

But we at length begin to find ourselves in the condition of the tra- 







^ 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXX11I 

veller, who has loitered so often and so long upon a pleasant road, that 
he is overtaken by night before he reaches his appointed limits. Nothing 
then is left for him but to speed over the way which remains, regardless 
of much, that when he first set out in the morning, he had fully ex- 
pected to enjoy. Tn like manner we must now hurry our wanderings to 
an end, concluding with three seats, from as many counties : namely, 
Stowe, Woburn Abbey, and Belvoir Castle. 

The manor of Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, two miles and a half from 
the county capital, was originally possessed by the abbot and convent 
of Oseney. On the dissolution of the monasteries, the prudent abbot, 
who then presided over Stowe, managed to obtain a gift of it from 
Henry, and became the first bishop of Oxford. In 1590, he resigned it 
to the crown, when it was granted to Thomas Compton, and anojther 
person, who immediately conveyed it, no doubt for a consideration, to 
John Temple, Esq., of a family that originally belonged to Sheepey, in 
Leicestershire, and afterwards to Burton Basset, in Warwickshire. 
From that time, the family continued to increase in honours, rising 
rapidly from one step to another in the peerage, till the head of the 
house attained the dignity of Duke of Buckingham. 

The old house, erected by Peter Temple in the time of Elizabeth, was 
pulled down and rebuilt by Sir Richard Temple, who died in 1697 ; 
but to this structure his son, Lord Cobham, added wings. Since then 
it has undergone yet further improvements, and been brought to the 
state of magnificence, in which we now see it, by the successive altera- 
tions of Earl Temple, who died in 1779, and the first Marquess of Buck- 
ingham. As it now stands, the centre of the front presents a line of 
four hundred and fifty-four feet, and with the wings included, extends 
to nine hundred and sixteen. The gardens occupy four hundred acres, 
offering at a distance the appearance of an immense grove, with towers, 
columns, and obelisks, glittering out from the deep mass of foliage. 
Nor does a nearer view of these celebrated grounds at all disappoint the 
expectations that may have been raised by the remoter glimpses of it. 
All that art could do to embellish nature, has here been done with much 
taste, and no regard to cost; grottoes, lakes, caverns, temples, and 
sculptures of all kinds, find a place in this fairy domain, which Wal- 
pole, no mean judge of such matters, describes as " sometimes recalling 
Albano's landscapes to our mind ; and oftener to our fancy, the idola- 
trous and luxurious vales of Daphne and Tempe." 

Woburn Abbey, the seat of John Russell, Duke of Bedford, belonged 
in early times to a monastery of the Cistercian order, the abbot of 

d 



XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 

Fountains having in 1146, persuaded Hugh de Boledec, a powerful 
baron, to this work of charity. So far back as 1547, the abbey, with its 
revenues, was granted to John, Lord Russell, by Edward the Sixth, who 
soon afterwards created him Earl of Bedford. In this family the estate 
has remained ever since, though the building has at various times under- 
gone considerable alterations. Its present appearance may be chiefly 
attributed to the fifth Duke, by whom the principal front, which is of 
the Ionic order, and the whole of the offices, forming two noble yet 
plain buildings, were erected from designs by Holland. 

The park is extensive, and surrounded by a wall eight feet in height, 
with detached pieces of water, fringed as it were, by grove and thicket. 
The adjoining country is characterised by many picturesque views, but 
to a philanthropist, the sight of the commodious farms, that meet the 
eye on every side, will be the most pleasing part of the landscape ; they 
speak directly to the heart, of the comfort and prosperity of the inmates, 
while testifying that the landlord is equally wise and liberal in the treat- 
ment of his tenants. 

Belvoie, in Leicestershire, the last place that we shall have to speak 
of, is so called from overlooking a beautiful valley at the foot of the 
eminence on which it stands. In part, it has great claims to antiquity, 
its foundations having been built by Robert de Todeni, a noble Norman, 
who was standard-bearer to William the Conqueror. After having con- 
tinued among his descendants for many years, the Castle passed by 
marriage, in Henry the Third's reign, into the possession of Robert de 
Roos. From him again it devolved to the noble family of Manners, 
with whom it has remained ever since. 

In the wars of the white and red roses, this building was demolished 
by William, Lord Hastings, and continued in ruins till rebuilt by 
Thomas Manners, Lord Ross, whom Henry the Eighth created the 
first Earl of Rutland. The great civil war between Charles and his 
Parliament, was scarcely less fatal to Belvoir than the earlier conflicts. 
Occasionally it was garrisoned by either party, and, as a natural result, 
from both it suffered very considerable damage. With the return of 
quiet times upon the restoration, it was once more repaired ; and here 
the first Duke of Rutland maintained the old English hospitality, for 
many years before his death never coming at all to London. 

Various improvements have been made upon this magnificent pile by 
the present Duke, at an expense, it is said, of at least two hundred 
thousand pounds. On one occasion, his Grace entertained here the 
Prince Regent, when the ancient and well-nigh forgotten ceremony of 



A RAMBLE THROUGH THE ENGLISH COUNTIES. XXXV 

presenting the keys of Staunton Tower was revived, to do honour to 
the royal visitant. The custom may be thus explained. Staunton 
Tower is an outwork, which in troubled times was the chief defence of 
Belvoir, and its command was entrusted to the family of that name, by 
tenure of castle-guard, a tenure imposing upon them the duty of its 
defence in case of danger, or when summoned thereto by the lord of the 
castle. Hence, in the olden time, the tendering of the keys was an 
expressive act of homage, acknowledging the authority of the lord 
paramount ; but in modern days, losing its original import, it has ceased 
to be anything more than a mere holyday pageant, which, like the giants 
of Guildhall, excites an indefinite idea of something venerable, from the 
simple fact of its being out of harmony with modern observances. 

So much by way of prologue or introduction ; and now, courteous 
reader, in the words of Henry the Eighth to Wolsey, but in a widely 
different spirit, " to breakfast with what appetite you may." 




m 

63 



P 
L— J 



>-=. 



THE 



HISTORIC LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



To the antiquary, the Christian, aud the lover of the picturesque, 
Sodbury presents objects of peculiar interest. 

A Roman camp of great magnitude — the Manor House where Tyndale 
translated the New Testament — the church in which he constantly 
preached — and scenery unrivalled in beauty, extent of prospect, and 
agricultural richness ; produce associations, elsewhere rarely to be found. 

There are three places contiguous bearing this name : Old Sodbury, 
Chipping Sodbury, the market town, and little Sodbury, in which stands 
the Old Manor House. Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley, Esq., is the 
present Lord of the Manor, and possesses about four thousand acres in 
the three parishes. 

Sodbury derives its name from the camp on the summit of the hill, 
meaning, literally, the South camp, in distinction to the camp called the 
Castles, at Horton, a mile northward, Bury being the saxon for camp, 
and Sod generally used for South. This seems to be one of the encamp- 
ments that Tacitus mentions,* formed by the Propraetor, P. Ostorious, to 
protect this side of the Severn from the incursions of the Silures, or 
Welch, and the camp occupies a most commanding position. The only 
entrance to it is on the east, between two ditches, and two aggera, or 
mounds, that surround it on three sides, but on the west it has but one 

* Tacitus, lib. 12, sect. 31 and 32. 



2 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

ditch, and one agger, the ground there being so steep as to have been 
deemed inaccessible. The length from north to south is about nine hun- 
dred feet, its breadth three hundred. The view is most extensive ; the 
course of the Severn is perceived for many miles, and, at certain seasons, 
the sea itself is discovered glittering beneath the rays of the golden sun, 
whilst the long line of coast, on the Welch side, melts away in the haze 
of the distant horizon ; so comprehensive is the prospect over the vale of 
Gloucester, that no large body of men could advance from Wales unper- 
ceived by the camp of the Legions. This position was occupied by Queen 
Margaret, and afterwards by Edward the Fourth, previous to the fatal 
battle of Tewksbury : indeed some fighting took place in the vicinity, 
and several of Edward's army were taken prisoners. A few Roman coins 
have been found near. Descending the hill, a quarter of a mile distant, 
we find 



Ltttle Sodbuky Manoe House, 

one of the oldest private residences in England. Built at different 
periods (a great part as far back as the fourteenth century), its antique 
gable, fine old porch, festooned with luxuriant creepers, and its elegantly 
carved oriel window, make it an object of peculiar interest. Sir John and 
Lady Walsh-- resided here at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and 
engaged the learned William Tyndale as tutor to their children. Tyndale 
had just finished his University education, and his mind seems before 
this period to have been deeply impressed with the solemn truths contained 
in the sacred volume. Now, Sir John having been Henry the Eighth's 
champion and especial favourite (indeed, the Manor was given him by 
that monarch), his society was much courted by the abbots and dignified 
ecclesiastics of the county, who frequently partook of the worthy knight's 
hospitality. The vaulted roof of the fine old dining-hall still remains as 



* Lady Walsh was the daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz, of Iron Acton, a neigh- 
bouring village. The family of Poyntz is very ancient ; they are descended from 
Drago de Ponz, who came to England with William the Conqueror, and for nearly 
600 years were settled at Iron Acton. By the death of William Stephen Poyntz, 
Esq., of Cowdray Park, and Midgham, the family is now become extinct in the male 
line, Mr. Poyntz's two sons having been unfortunately drowned; his daughters are 
married into the noble families of Clinton, Spencer, and Exeter ; and his sisters were 
married to brothers, the present Earl of Cork, and the late Admiral Sir Courtney 
Boyle. It seems highly probable that the Poyntz, who so long protected Tyndale, and 
whose disinterested attachment to the martyr had very nearly involved him also in 
death and ruin, was of the same family. 



SOJDBURY. 



in the days of yore, when lordly bishops, belted knights, and beauteous 
ladies, with their dependants and retainers, feasted here, and the walls 
rung with mirth and merriment. The conversation at these entertain- 
ments frequently turning on religious subjects, Tyndale was often drawn 
into discussions with the clergy, who, in general, opposed and resisted his 
eloquence and piety. 

Still, though persecuted, opposed, and calumniated by a powerful 
hierarchy, and a despotic monarch thirsting for his life, did this undaunted 
man persevere, till having triumphed over every obstacle, the plan formed 
within the walls of Sodbury was completed ; and the resolution, uttered 
in this old Hall, was fulfilled ! A distant age still regards with astonish- 
ment the stupendous changes that have taken place in the framework of 
society, by giving to Englishmen the Bible in the vernacular tongue. 

In the year 1556, a tremendous storm visited this place, and whilst 
Maurice Walsh (Sir John's eldest son, and the pupil of Tyndale) with his 
seven children were at dinner, the lightning entered the room at the door, 
and passing through to the opposite window killed one child on the spot, 
whilst the other six, with their unhappy father, were so dreadfully in- 
jured, that they all died within two months. 

In the reign of James the First, Thomas Stephens, Esq., an eminent 
lawyer, and Attorney- General to the King's sons, the Princes Henry and 
Charles, purchased the Manor and estates of the Walshes. Thomas was 
the third son of Edward Stephens, Esq., of Eastington. The family of 
Stephens is of ancient standing in Gloucestershire, having been settled 
there more than 700 years. Ealph and William, two brothers, were jointly 
High- Sheriffs in the reign of Henry the Second ; and William was High- 
Sheriff alone from the twenty-second year of that monarch's reign to the 
first year of Richard Cceur de Lion — having thus filled the office for 
thirteen successive years. This Thomas Stephens must have been ex 
tremely wealthy, probably, through his marriage with a rich London 
heiress, who was the mother of his three sons, Edward, John, and Na- 
thaniel. To Edward he left the Manor and estates of Sodbury ; for John, 
he purchased a large estate at Lypiat; and to Nathaniel he gave 
Cherington. Thus his sons became ancestors to three distinct branches 
of the family of Stephens. There is at Lye Grove House, the residence 
of his descendant, Mr. Hartley, an uncommonly fine portrait, by Vansomer, 
of this eminent man ; he is represented in his robes of sable, holding in 
the right hand a roll of parchment. For splendour of colouring, and 
masterly execution, this painting is equal to the portraits of Rubens, — 
indeed, it has often been mistaken for that master. 

b 2 



THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



Sir Thomas Stephens, Kt, grandson of the above, was High-Sheriff 
1614 and 1671. He obtained a grant from Charles the Second, em- 
powering him to make a park at Lye Grove, a part of this domain. Of 
the park, enclosed and planted by Stephens, nothing now remains but the 
wall, a copse of enormous beech trees, and an avenue leading to the House, 
of perhaps, the largest ash trees in the kingdom. Mr. Hartley possesses 
the draft of the original grant, and it is not a little strange, that the frail 
paper, which empowered the enclosure, should have survived the noble 
park it called into existence. 

Edward Stephens, Esq., was the last of the name who resided here, 
dying in 1728 ; the domain passed by heirship to the Packers,-'' an 
ancient Berkshire family. 

Now, courteous reader, do not think me too prolix if I relate an 
anecdote of this last Stephens. Perhaps, when gliding along in some 
luxurious railway carriage, at the rate of forty miles an hour, thou mayst 
smile at the snail-like pace of our forefathers only a century ago. Mr. 
Stephens and his lady, (who, by the way, was a gre&t heiress) having 
been on a visit at Bristol, which is about fourteen miles distant, left that 
place one morning early to return to their country seat. The lady, 
rustling in all the majesty of hoop and satins, sat magnificently ensconced 
in the lumbering vehicle drawn by six horses. Stephens, whose patience 
had doubtless been tried on former occasions, preferred a walk home 
across the fields, to the stately trot of such a semi- triumphal procession. 
On reaching the manor-house he is somewhat surprised to find that the 
lady had not yet arrived ; he returns towards Bristol in quest of the 
cavalcade, but gains no tidings thereof until he arrived at Pucklechurch, 
about half way. There, to his great joy and astonishment, he finds 
" Madam in the booby-hutch," (as he called the coach) sitting indeed like 
" Patience on a monument." They had been stopped by sundry break- 
ages, and the state of the roads, almost impassable in those days, but 
had h?ppily got thus far when the vehicle unfortunately foundered in 
an unlucky mud-bank, from whence it was obliged to be literally dug out 
before they could proceed on their journey ! 

The manor-house had not been inhabited (excepting the part used as a 

* The celebrated Dr. Hartley, author of the admirable " Essay on Man," by his 
marriage with the only surviving child of R. Packer, Esq., of Donnington Castle, 
became possessed of Sodbury, as well as of the large property at Bucklebury, in 
Berkshire, originally Sir H. Wynchcomhe's and the Viscountess Bolingbroke's, Sir 
Henry's daughter. Thus, for 120 years, these three fine estates have been united; 
they comprise together about 12,000 acres, and are, in point of picturesque beauty, 
inferior to none in the kingdom. 



SODBURV. 



farm) for forty years. The present Mr. Hartley was anxious to reside 
here, and had it surveyed, wishing, if possible, to restore it ; but it was 
found on examination, that neglect and damp had so accelerated the work of 
decay, that the intention of restoring it was necessarily abandoned. Pic- 
turesque as is undoubtedly the situation as a dwelling-house, it is, however, 
singularly inconvenient; for, being built — nestled as it were — against 
the side of a precipitous hill, most of the basement-floor rooms had one 
side under ground ; the kitchen is actually on the floor above the parlours, 
— and what modern cook would endure the idea of serving dinner down 
in an apartment below stairs? The great dining-hall is on one side 
fifteen feet below the ground, consequently damp as a cellar. The old 
library had the same objection, whilst several of the bedrooms were on 
the same level as the field. Some of the oldest buildings were necessarily 
obliged to be removed, the walls being so much out of the perpendicular 
that they must have fallen. Tyndales chamber was in this part — it was 
adorned with curious carvings in the Tudor style. Mr. Hartley has 
caused every fragment, every vestige of the illustrious man to be pre- 
served, and intends placing them in a noble room now being erected at 
Lye Grove, which is to bear the martyr's name. There, in a ceiling 
blazoned with purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, amongst the 
effigies of the great and the wealthy, appear conspicuous, the name and 
armorial bearings of the persecuted exile — the martyred Tyndale ! 

But the lengthening shadows admonish us to leave these venerable 
remains, and again ascend the hill, if we would visit, before nightfall, 
an object whose associations are even more hallowed — the little 



CJjuvd) of &t. atrtlint. 

Two enormous yew trees protect the entrance, behind whose dark-green 
foliage the setting sun, now almost touching the horizon, is darting his 
last rays in one expansive flood of golden light. Apart from all higher 
considerations, the little church seen from the hill above — its tiny tower 
and whitened walls relieved by an extensive and most beautiful distance 
of softened blue — presents an epitome of rural beauty seen no where else 
but in verdant, in luxuriant England ; but the associations connected with 
the spot kindle emotions of a deeper, a more sublime kind. These yew 
trees shading the hallowed portal are the largest I ever saw, and tradition 
(generally correct) assigns to them a duration of eight hundred years. 
Those luxuriant and far- spreading boughs shaded the illustrious Tyndale, 



6 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

when he entered this humble edifice to pour forth that heavenly eloquence 
Foxe speaks of, "which was a comfort to the audience who heard him/' 
Were those noble old trees endowed with memory and speech, what tales 
could they unfold of the families that sought this rural shrine, whom the 
flood of time lias long since swept away ! Where are the Despencers — the 
Walshes — the Stephens's ? Where the learned Hartley, and Mary his 
accomplished daughter? How important the moral that these melan- 
choly boughs unfold — a child could have crushed them in their infancy, 
but they have survived the wreck of generations of the noble, the rich, 
and the poor, all 

" Creatures of clay, vain dwellers in the dust, 
A moth survives you." 

What recollections are here excited of the feudal, the Catholic, and the 
Protestant times. Beneath this aged portal have passed the lordly baron 
and the crouching serf, the pampered priest and self-denying reformer, 
the gay and voluptuous cavalier, and the stern and uncompromising round- 
head. 

It has been the writer's good fortune to visit this lovely spot at differ- 
ent seasons, and under various appearances of the atmosphere ; how 
charming to witness the diorama-like effect of light and shade on such an 
expansive prospect ; — one moment some hillock, or grove, or meadow, 
gleaming in sunshine, and the next the same objects lost in obscurity. 
The last time I visited this scene of enchantment, the day had been over- 
cast and the atmosphere was lowering ; — the sun had sunk beneath a canopy 
of heavy clouds, and a distance that ordinarily appears of the softest grey, 
now seemed to reflect only the heavy and lurid colour of the heavens ; — 
but there was a single streak of yellow light in the horizon, which served 
to discover and distinctly relieve three mountains at a great distance ; they 
are contiguous, and I suppose in Brecon, but never had I seen these hills 
before ; — the first rises with gentle undulation, the last is bold and 
precipitous, 

" And from out the plain 
Heaves like a long swept wave about to break, 
And on the curl hangs pausing." 

They only who have spent their happiest days amongst mountains 
and Alpine scenery can understand the impressions of delight expe- 
rienced by suddenly beholding these elevated objects, from spots where 
least expected. 



WHITBY ABBEY. 7 

Now, reader, contrast the church of Little Sodbury with many a stately 
cathedral, whose enamelled walls and gorgeous altars never heard such 
streams of heavenly eloquence as were poured out in this lowly shrine, 
from the fervid lips of the earliest and most high-minded of our reformers ; 
and in the scale of truth and reason how insignificant do they appear ; 
how inferior to the associations of intense interest that hover over the 
white walls of the most diminutive of parochial churches — St. Adeline of 
Little Sodbury. 



OTijttfci) m\iw, co. lovfe. 

" High Whitby's cloister'd pile." — Marmion. 

Towards the close of the eleventh century, three poor monks set out 
from Evesham Abbey for the north, with the pious intention of restoring 
monastic institutions in Northumbria. They travelled on foot, with a 
little mule to carrry their books and priestly garments, and they wended 
their way onward, slowly, but cheerfully. Inadequate, indeed, must 
have appeared, in human estimation, the means possessed by these lowly 
brethren, for the mighty task they had undertaken, but a Divine 
guidance directed their steps, and prospered their endeavours. Having 
sojourned for a brief period at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, they journeyed on 
to Jarrow, where they built themselves huts among ruins of the ancient 
Abbey of Whitby, and erected a temporary place of worship. Here they 
gathered together a goodly number of followers, and became the 
founders of that holy community, which, subsequently, held such 
puissant sway in 

" Whitby's broad domains." 

Before, however, proceeding with the history of the lands of Whitby, 
from the revival of the abbey to the present time, we must not omit a 
description, brief though it be, of the earlier foundation, which thus 
owed its revival to the piety of the Evesham monks : 

This original monastery was founded under the patronage of king Oswy, 
whose daughter, iElfleda, was the second abbess. Before the great battle 
of Winwidfield (or Leeds), in which Penda, king of Mercia, was over- 
thrown by Oswy, the latter vowed, that if he should prove victorious, he 
would devote his infant daughter to the Lord, and, at the same time, give 
twelve manors, or possessions of land, for founding monasteries. In 



8 THE LANDS 0E ENGLAND. 

fulfilment of this vow, Oswy committed the child iElfleda, who was 
scarcely a year old, to the care of Hilda, abbess of Hartlepool ; 
and set apart, for the support of monastic institutions, twelve pos- 
sessions of land, six in Deira, and six in Bernicia, each consisting of 
" ten families." As the battle was gained in the end of 655, the infant 
iElfleda might be sent to Hartlepool in the spring of 656 ; and, two 
years after, that is, in the beginning of 658, Lady Hilda, " having pur- 
chased a possession of ten families in a place called Streoneshalh, (now 
Whitby) there built a monastery ;" where she and the young princess, 
with many, if not all of the sisterhood who were at Hartlepool, took up 
their abode. This possession, though stated to be purchased by Lady 
Hilda, may be supposed to have been purchased at Oswy's expense, and 
to have been one of the twelve possessions above mentioned, as each of 
them consisted of " ten families." 

Hilda, the foundress and first abbess of the monastery at Whitby, was 
a lady of high rank. She was grand-niece to the renowned King Edwin, 
being the daughter of Prince Hereric, his nephew. Her birth occurred in 
the year 614. The place is unknown, as is also her birth-day ; though 
tradition states the latter to be the 25th day of August, which has been 
kept at Whitby, in honour of Lady Hilda, from time immemorial. 

About the year 647, when she was thirty-three years of age, Hilda 
resolved to assume the veil ; a step which she might be induced to take, 
not only from the influence of her pious instructors, but from what she 
had seen of the instability of earthly greatness, in the disasters that befel 
the royal families of Northumbria and East-Anglia, to both of which she 
was nearly related; and, especially, from the example of her sister 
Hereswith, who, having become a widow, had retired into the monastery 
of Cale (or Chelles), in France. It was her first design, on taking the 
religious habit, to spend her days in the same monastery with her widowed 
sister ; and, with this view, she went to the court of East-Anglia, hoping, 
that the king, to whom she was nearly related, would forward her to 
France. But when she had remained there a year, without finding any 
opportunity of going over to the continent, bishop Aidan, hearing of her 
detention, invited her to settle in her own country ; and, having obtained 
" a place of one family" on the north bank of the river Wear, she there 
pursued the monastic life with a few female associates. 

At the expiration of a year, she was made abbess of Hartlepool ; Heiu 
or Hegu, the foundress, and first abbess of that monastery, and the first 
nun in Northumbria, having removed to Tadcaster, where she commenced 
another nunnery. In her new situation at Hartlepool, Hilda acquitted 



WHITBY ABBEY. 



herself in such, a manner as added lustre to her character, and gave the 
highest satisfaction to Bishop Aidan, and other pious friends, who often 
visited her monastery. Here she had presided some years, maintaining a 
high character for piety and wisdom, when she removed, on the occasion 
above mentioned, to the banks of the Esk, taking with her the young 
Princess iElfleda, and a large company of pious females. 

Being, no doubt, constructed of wood, covered with reeds or thatch, 
and furnished in the most simple style, like all the other religious build- 
ings of the Scottish missionaries and their disciples, the monastery of 
Streoneshalh would require but a few weeks to complete it : so that 
Hilda and her associates would enter on their new habitation, in the 
same season in which the undertaking was begun. The institution pro- 
bably commenced on a small scale ; but it soon rose to the first rank 
among the monasteries of Northumbria. The fame of Hilda's piety, 
intelligence, and prudence, attracted numbers to her community. Those 
of the higher classes who embraced a religious life, would feel a pleasure 
in becoming inmates of an abbey, where a lady so respectable presided, 
and where a young princess was educated. Yet the new monastery was 
conducted in the spirit of primitive simplicity. Charity and peace were 
peculiarly cultivated : none were rich, and none poor ; but they had all 
things in common, nothing being deemed the property of any one indi- 
vidual. 

Though we have no account of any new grants of land made to Lady 
Hilda's monastery, in addition to the first endowment, there can be no 
doubt that it increased in wealth as well as in numbers. Enjoying, as it did, 
in a high degree, the patronage of the royal family of Northumbria, its 
possessions must have grown rapidly ; Oswy and his nobles vieing with one 
another in advancing its interests. Some of the incidents recorded by 
Bede, as having occurred in the days of iElfleda, imply that the terri- 
tories of the monastery were then of great extent ; which is also obvious, 
from the erection of so many new monasteries, subordinate to the parent 
institution. 

The death of the good Lady Hilda happened at the close of the year 
680. Her piety, prudence, and learning, caused her to be dignified with 
the title of Saint, and her claims to the honour seemed to have been well 
founded. Bede has given us no account of any miracles which she wrought ; 
but his lack of service has been amply made up by later writers, who have 
emblazoned her memory with splendid fictions. According to these 
fabulists, the spiral shells called ammonites, which abound in our alum 
rock, in a petrified state, are the remains of serpents, which once infested 



10 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

the neighbourhood of Streoneshalh, but were beheaded and turned into 
stone by Lady Hilda's prayers ; and her territory was so sacred, that 
when the sea-fowls attempted to fly over it, they were constrained to do 
her homage, by lowering their pinions and dropping to the ground. 
Scott alludes to the tradition : 

" They told, how in their convent cell 
A Saxon princess once did dwell, 

The lovely Edelfled ; 
And how of thousand snakes, each one 
Was changed into a coil of stone, 

When holy Hilda prayed ; 
Themselves, within their holy bound, 
Their stony folds had often found. 
They told, how sea-fowls' pinions fail, 
As over W T hitby's towers they sail, 
And, sinking down, with flutterings faint, 
They do their homage to the saint." 

Marmion, Canto II. 

Hilda was succeeded in the government of Streoneshalh Abbey, by her 
royal pupil vElfleda, then 26 years of age. Whatever might be wanting 
to this young abbess, in years and experience, was amply compensated 
by the assistance of her mother, the Queen Eanfleda ; who, after the 
death of her husband, King Oswy, retired to this monastery, to spend the 
remainder of her days with her favourite child, in the practice of piety 
and virtue. 

The death of iElfleda took place in 713, when she was 59 years of 
age. We have no account of the close of her life, but are informed that 
she was interred in St. Peter's Church, beside the remains of her royal 
parents and her venerable predecessor. 

The records of the Abbey, from the death of JElfleda to the irruption of 
the Danes, are irrecoverably lost. It is, however, a mournful fact of 
history, that in the year 867 the holy edifice was completely destroyed 
by those northern invaders, and that it lay desolate to the time to which 
we have referred, when its revival was accomplished by the monks from 
Evesham. Of those pious Christians, one, named Reinfrid, had been 
formerly a soldier of the Conquest, and, as such, had been known to 
William de Percy, Lord of Whitby, who granted to him and his fraternity 
the site of the ancient Abbey, with two carucates of land in Presteby for 
their support. 

The ruins of the abbev still bore the marks of its former greatness ; 



WHITBY ABBEY. 11 

for, according to an ancient record, " there were then in that town, as 
some old inhabitants have told us, about forty cells, or oratories, of which 
nothing was left but bare walls and empty altars." Among these ruins. 
Reinfrid and his associates took up their abode ; and, while they formed 
habitations for themselves, they probably, as at Jarrow, repaired some 
part of the church, or some one of the numerous oratories or porches that 
surrounded it, to serve as a place of worship. The piety of Reinfrid and 
his brethren, soon attracted several respectable persons to their society, 
and the new convent began to prosper. 

Not long after, the humble Reinfrid, perceiving the superior abilities 
and learning of one of the community, Stephen of Whitby, yielded place 
to that famous churchman, who, not content with the title of Prior, borne 
by his predecessor, assumed the higher designation of Abbot, and, 
aspiring at greater things, aimed at nothing less than the restoration of 
the Abbey to its pristine glory. These ambitious efforts roused the 
jealousy of the lord paramount, William de Percy, and the quarrels 
which ensued, as well as the attacks of pirates from the sea, forced the 
community to retire for a time to Lestingham. At length, all disputes 
adjusted, the community were again collected at Whitby, in increased 
power and splendour, and thenceforward they enjoyed their ample pos*- 
sessions undisturbed and respected, until the dissolution of the monas- 
teries, temp. Henry VIII., when Whitby Abbey was surrendered to the 
Crown, and the site and manor leased for 21 years to Sir Richard 
Cholmley. 

Thus ended the religious tenancy of these ancient lands ; but, before 
entering on the history of the lay proprietors, we must give some account 
of one of the peculiar feudal services which the monks required of their 
homagers, called " the making up of thehorngarth." This curious custom 
derived its name, in all probability, from the assembling of the tenants at 
a specified time each year in some garth, or inclosure fenced with wood, 
and from the circumstance of their being called together by the blowing 
of a horn. Its origin is involved in obscurity, if we discard as fabulous 
the following romantic legend, invented by some imaginative monk : — 

" In the fifth year of the reign of King Henry the second, after the conquest 
of England, by William, Duke of Normandy, the Lord of Ugglebarnby, then 
called William de Bruce, the Lord of Sneaton, called Ralph de Piercie, with a 
gentleman and freeholder of Fylingdales, called Allatson, did, in the month of 
October, the 16th day of the same month, appoint to meet and hunt the wild 
boar, in a certain wood, or desart, called Eskdale-Side. The wood, or place, 
did belong to the abbot of the monastery of Whitby, who was called Sedman. 



12 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Then the aforesaid gentlemen did meet, with their boar-staves and hounds, in 
the place aforenamed, and there found a great wild boar, and the hounds did 
run him very well, near about the chapel and hermitage of Eskdale-Side, where 
there was a monk of Whitby, who was an Hermit. The boar being sore 
wounded, and hotly pursued, and dead run, took in at the chapel door, and 
there laid him down, and presently died. The hermit shut the hounds forth of 
the chapel, and kept himself within, at his meditations and prayers, the hounds 
standing at bay, without. The gentlemen in the thick of the wood, put behind 
their game, following the cry of their hounds, came to the hermitage, and found 
the hounds round about the chapel. Then came the gentlemen to the door of 
the chapel, and called the hermit, who did open the door, and come forth, and, 
within, lay the boar, dead ; for the which, the gentlemen, in a fury, because 
their hounds were put from their game, did, most violently and cruelly, run at 
the hermit with their boar-staves, whereof he died. Then the gentlemen, 
knowing and perceiving he was in peril of death, took sanctuary at Scar- 
borough ; but, at that time, the abbot, in great favour with the king, did remove 
them out of the sanctuary, whereby they came in danger of the law, and could 
not be privileged, but like to have the severity of the law, which was death for 
death. But the hermit, being a holy man, and being very sick, and at the point 
of death, sent for the abbot, and desired him to send for the gentlemen who had 
wounded him to death. The abbot so doing, the gentlemen came, and the 
hermit being sore sick, said, I am sure to die of these wounds. The abbot 
answered, they shall die for thee. But the hermit said, not so, for I freely for- 
give them my death, if they be content to be enjoyned to this penance, for the 
safeguard of their souls. The gentlemen being there present, and terrified with 
the fear of death, bid him enjoyn what he would, so he saved their lives. Then 
said the hermit, ' You and yours shall hold your lands of the abbot of Whitby, 
and his successors, in this manner : that, upon Ascension-eve, you, or some for 
you, shall come to the wood of the Stray-head, which is in Eskdale-side, the 
same day, at sun-rising, and there shall the officer of the abbot blow his horn, 
to the intent that you may know how to find him, and he shall deliver unto you, 
William de Bruce, ten stakes, ten stout stowers, and ten yedders, to be cut by 
you, or those that come for you, with a knife of a penny price ; and you, Ralph 
de Piercie, shall take one and twenty of such sort, to be cut in the same man- 
ner ; and you, Allotson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut as aforesaid ; and 
to be taken on your backs, and carried to the town of Whitby, and so to be 
there before nine of the clock of the same day aforementioned. And at the 
hour of nine of the clock (if it be full sea, to cause that service), as long as it is 
low water, at nine of the clock, the same hour each of you shall set your stakes 
at the brim of the water, each stake a yard from another, and so yedder them, 
as with your yedders, and so stake on each side with your stout-stowers, that 
they stand three tides without removing by the force of the water. Each of 
you shall make them in several places at the hour aforenamed (except it be full 
sea at that hour, which, when it shall happen to pass, that service shall cease), 



WHITBY ABBEY. 13 

and you shall do this service in remembrance that you did [most cruelly] slay 
me And that you may the better call to God for repentance, and find mercy, 
and do good works, the officer of Eskdale-side shall blow his horn, Out on you, 
out on you, out on you, for the heinous crime of you. And if you and your 
successors do refuse this service, so long as it shall not be full sea, at that hour 
aforesaid, you, and yours, shall forfeit all your lands to the abbot [of Whitby], 
or his successors. Thus I do entreat the abbot, that you may have your lives 
and goods for this service, and you to promise by your parts in Heaven, that it 
shall be done by you and your successors, as it is aforesaid.' And the abbot 
said, I grant all that you have said, and will confirm it by the faith of an honest 
man. Then the hermit said, ' My soul longeth for the Lord, and I do as freely 
forgive these gentlemen my death, as Christ forgave the thief upon the cross :' 
and in the presence of the abbot and the rest, he said, ' In manus tuas, Domine, 
commendo spiritum meum : [a vinculis enim mortis] redemisti me, Domine 
veritatis. — Amen.' " 

And so he yielded up the ghost, the 18th day of December, upon whose soul 
God have mercy. — Amen. Anno Domini 1160. [1159]. 

This grotesque story is so amusing, that we would be tempted to side 
with Grose, and assert its authenticity, but unluckily the proofs of its 
truth are so feeble, that we are forced to discard it as a fiction. Its 
romance caught the fancy of Scott, and he has thus versified it in 
Marmion : — 

" Then Whitby's nuns exulting told, 
How to their house three barons bold 

Must menial service do ; 
While horns blow out a note of shame, 
And monks cry, ' Fye upon your name ! 
In wrath, for loss of sylvan game, 

Saint Hilda's priest ye slew.' 
This on Ascension-day, each year, 
While labouring on our harbour pier, 
Must Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear." 

Sir Richard Cholmley, who obtained the 21 years' lease of the dis- 
solved monastery's lands, became subsequently possessed in fee of the 
estate, by purchasing the grant from Sir Edward Yorke, who had bought 
it of John Earl of Warwick, the grantee from the Crown. Sir Richard 
was a distinguished soldier, and fought with great gallantry in Scotland. 
He loved pomp, and generally had fifty or sixty servants about his house ; 
nor would he ever go up to London without a retinue of thirty or forty 
men. His hair and eyes were black, and his complexion so swarthy, 



14 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

that lie was usually styled " The Black Knight of the North." To his 
son and successor, Sir Francis Cholmley, the mansion of Whitby Hall 
owes its erection. 

It bears the marks of having been partly built out of the ruins of the 
monastery ; and probably stands on or near the site of the abbot's hall. 
The celebrated Sir Hugh Cholmley greatly enlarged and improved the struc- 
ture, about the year 1035 ; and the eastern part of it was probably added 
by him. During the civil wars, Sir Hugh fortified the house, and had a 
garrison to defend it, as appears by the following passage in Vicars' 
Parliamentary Chronicle for February, 1643-4, p. 160: "The most 
noble and ever-to-be-honoured and renouned Lord Fairfax, about this 
time enlarged his quarters from Hull 20 miles towards Durham, and by 
a party of horse, commanded by that valiant, victorious, and religious 
commander, Sir William Constable, drave that rotten apostate, Sir Hugh 
Chomley, out of Scarborough towne into the castle, which caused such 
an operation in the hearts of the inhabitants of Whitby, as that they were 
soone and surely reduced and settled (as you already heard in part they 
were) to the Parliaments side, and, presently after, seized on Sir Hugh's 
great house and fort on the High-Clift, disarmed his garrison, and so kept 
it for Lord Fairfax, who, afterwards, sent 200 horse, the better to secure 
it." 

The last Sir Hugh Cholmley, about the year 1672, built the north side 
of the hall, forming a handsome and extensive front ; the whole structure 
now assuming the form of a square, with an open area within. The 
Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale, the Earls of Athol and Kinghorn, and 
others of the nobility, were entertained by Sir Hugh, in his improved 
mansion. When the Wentworth estates fell to the Cholmley family, in 
1743, How sham became the chief residence of the family, and Whitby 
Hall began to be deserted. About fifty years ago, the wind having 
injured the roof of the north front, the whole of that side, which was the 
principal part of the house, was dismantled, only the walls being left 
standing. 

The present representative of the family, and the Lord of Whitby, 
is George Cholmley, Esq. 



WIMBLEDON PARK. 15 



" The groves of Eden, vanish'd now so long, 
Live in description, and look green in song : 
These, were my breast inspired with equal flame, 
Like them in beauty, should be like in fame." — Pope. 

Held successively by Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Queen Catherine 
Parr, Cardinal Pole, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Thomas Cecil, Earl of 
Exeter, his son Edward, Viscount Wimbledon, a gallant military com- 
mander, Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I., General Lambert, the 
Parliamentarian, the Cavalier Earl of Bristol, the Marquess of Carmar- 
then, Sir Theodore Janssen, the ruined speculator in the South Sea 
bubble, the famous Duchess of Marlborough, and her descendants the 
Spencers, this ancient manor is surpassingly rich in associations. When 
Cecil resided here, his royal mistress was feasted for three days with 
princely pomp ; and so attached was Charles I. to this enchanting spot, 
even then celebrated for its choice fruits, that, but a few days before his 
trial, he ordered some fine Spanish melons to be planted in the gardens. 
The attractions of the locality converted the stern Republican Lambert 
into a florist, and during his tenure Wimbledon became celebrated for its 
tulips and gilliflowers. 

The value in the rise'of this property marks the gradual increase in the 
price of land. In the time of Edward the Confessor the manor was 
valued at £32 per annum, and when the survey of Domesday was taken, 
at £38, the rent now commonly paid for dwellings by clerks or mechanics, 
When the grant was made to Sir Christopher Hatton, the annual value 
had risen to £98, and when the crown lands were sold in 1650, to £386, 
19s. 8d. At that valuation the property, under all the disadvantages of 
seizure from royalty, and sale by order of the Commonwealth, brought 
eighteen years' purchase. 

The manor-house has suffered fortune almost as various as the lands. 
Rebuilt in a magnificent style in 1588, by Sir Thomas Cecil, it was much 
damaged by fire in 1628, and on its repair was decorated, it is thought, 
on the outside with frescoes by Francis Cleyne. So superb did Wimble- 
don House then become, that Fuller calls it " a daring structure," and 
maintains its equality to famed Nonsuch. The Parliamentary survey at 
the sale ordered by the Commonwealth, in 1649, describes the mansion 
minutely, and reports it to be exceedingly magnificent. The gardens 



16 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

were particularly admired : brought by the taste of Charles I. to the 
highest perfection, they were reported to contain upwards of one thou- 
sand rare and choice fruit-trees, among which were enumerated orange, 
lemon, pomegranate, and citron trees. At a later date, Swift notices 
Wimbledon House as much the finest place about London. But it did 
not content the Duchess of Marlborough : she had it pulled down, and a 
new edifice erected, after designs by the Earl of Pembroke. The park 
was laid out by the celebrated " capability" Brown, who had here capa- 
bilities to operate on equal at least to his own genius. The mansion was 
burnt down in 1785, and as it was not used as a residence by the Spencer 
family, was not rebuilt until 1801. It is a plain, handsome edifice, and 
is now tenanted by the Duke of Somerset. 

These noble lands command a panoramic view of perfect beauty : 
sloping hills clad in the rich verdure of skilful cultivation, with far-ex- 
tended plains, and mimic mountains, tinted by distance with a cerulean 
hue, form a charming picture ; while the river, as calm and clear as ever, 
viewed from the heights of this upland district, winds through a rich and 
varied country, retaining and deserving its old epithet of the " silver 
Thames." 

The late Sir Richard Phillips, in " A Morning's Walk from Richmond 
to Kew," gives the following description of this delightful spot :— 
" Having ascended from Wandsworth to Putney Heath, I came to the 
undulating high land on which stand Wimbledon, its Common, Roehamp- 
ton, Richmond Park, and its lovely hill. A more interesting site of the 
same extent is not, perhaps, to be found in the world. The picturesque 
beauty and its general advantages are attested by the preference given to 
it by ministers and public men, who select it as a retreat from the cares 
of ambition. It was here that Pitt, Dundas, Home Tooke, Addington, 
Sir Francis Burdett, and Goldsmid, were contemporary residents." Sir 
Richard laments that the residences are so "few and far between." 
" When," says he, " does Woollett enchant us but in those rich land- 
scapes in which the woods are filled with peeping habitations, and scope 
given for the imagination, by the curling smoke rising between the trees." 

We have a melancholy feeling in thus recording the glories of Wimble- 
don manor ; a brief time hence this fine estate and rural district will pro- 
bably become one of the most attractive suburbs of the marvellously 
extending metropolis : for it is proposed to convert a portion of this 
honoured spot into villas and private residences, and on the site which 
once served for the lordly luxury of one, to provide handsome dwellings 
for thousands. 



GHOBY AND BRADGATE. 17 



Qvofog anfc Sratigate, co. £*t«gter. 



O Charnwood, be -thou called the choicest of thy kind: 

The like, in any place, what flood hath hapt to find ? 
No tract in all this isle, the proudest let it be, 

Can shew a sylvan Nymph in beauty like to thee — 

The Satyrs and the Fauns, by Dian set to keep 
Rough Hills and Forest Holts were sadly seen to weep, 
When thy high-palmed harts — the sport of boors and hounds— 

By grapple Borderers' hands were banished thy grounds, j 



Groby, so long the designation of the illustrious families of Ferrars 
and Grey, forms part of Charnwood, itself a portion of the ancient Celtic 
forest of Arden, " Rosalind's favoured haunt," which extended from the 
Avon to the Trent, and now includes a considerable portion of the 
triangle denned by the towns of Leicester, Loughborough, and Ashby 
de la Zouch* An elegantly written description of" Charnwood's ancient 
Chase," has been given to the public by Mr. T. R. Potter, of Wymeswold, 
in which, profound antiquarian knowledge is so combined with historic 
anecdote and picturesque narration, that the general reader cannot fail to 
journey, a delighted traveller, along the unfrequented paths of local 
history, gathering as he goes, many an attractive flower, and reposing on 
many a verdant spot. 

Groby is, indeed, associated with historical recollections, and these, 
combined with its antiquity, impart to it peculiar interest. Tracing 
it from the time of Edward the Confessor, when it was held at the an- 
nual value of twenty shillings, we find it registered in Domesday-book 
at sixty, erected into a barony by William Rufus, and eventually 
identified with the extraordinary Elizabeth Widvile, or Woodville — with 
one exception, the most illustrious name connected with the house of 
Grey. 

From Hugo de Grentesmeisnell, the Domesday proprietor, Groby 
passed to Robert Blanchmaines, in marriage with Hugo's daughter, 
Petronella; and again, through the alliance of this lady's descendant 
with William, Earl of Derby, it was conveyed to the noble House of 
Ferrars, in which the manor vested until the middle of the fifteenth 

c 



IS THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

century, when the male line of the Lords Ferrars becoming extinct, Eli- 
zabeth, grand daughter and heiress of the last Baron, wedded Sir Edward 
Grey, son of Reginald, Lord Grey de Ruthyn, and thus associated the 
inheritance of her family with a name from which it derives its chief 
historic celebrity. Her son and successor, Sir John Grey, Knt., a de- 
voted adherent of the House of Lancaster, was slain at the Battle of St. 
Albans. His wife, the celebrated Elizabeth Widvile, deserves more than 
a passing word : it was her singular fate to be allied to one English 
monarch, Edward IV., and addressed or cajoled by another, still more 
memorable, Richard III. Brilliant, however, as was the diadem which 
eventually graced her brow, her first marriage appears to have been far 
more congenial with her feelings ; and, if an inference can be drawn 
from the following passage in her Diary, we cannot refrain from think- 
ing, with her happiness. This Diary presents such a curious picture of 
the times, and so naively describes the youthful maiden's own feelings, 
as well as the extraordinary laws then in vogue, and the pursuits (so 
different from ours,) of fashionable ladies in those days, that we make 
no apology for giving the following extract : — 



"Thursday Morning (May 10, 1451). — Rose at four o'clock, and helped 
Katherine to milk the cows: Rachael, the other dairy-maid, having scalded 
one of her hands in a very sad manner last night. Made a poultice for Rachael, 
and gave Robin a penny to get her something comfortable from the apothecary's. 
Six o'clock. — Breakfasted. The buttock of beef rather too much boiled, and the 
ale a little the stalest. Memorandum — to tell the cook about the first fault, and 
to mend the second myself, by tapping a fresh barrel directly. Seven o'clock. 
— Went out with the Lady Duchess, my mother, into the court-yard ; fed five 
and thirty men and women ; chid Roger very severely for expressing some dis- 
satisfaction in attending us with the broken meat. Eight o'clock. — Went into 
the paddock behind the house with my maiden Dorothy : caught Stump, the 
little black pony, myself, and rode a matter of six miles, without either saddle 
or bridle. Ten o'clock. — Went to dinner. John Grey one of our visitants — 
a most comely youth—but what's that to me ? A virtuous maiden should be 
entirely under the direction of her parents. John ate very little — stole a great 
many tender looks at me — said a woman never could be handsome, in his 
opinion, who was not good-tempered. I hope my temper is not intolerable ; 
nobody finds fault with it but Roger, and Roger is the most disorderly serving 
man in our family. John Grey likes white teeth — my teeth are of a pretty 
good colour, I think, and my hair is as black as jet, though I say it — and John, 
if I mistake not, is of the same opinion. Eleven o'clock. — Rose from table, the 
company all desirous of walking in the fields. John Grey would lift me over 
every stile, and twice he squeezed my hand with great vehemence. I cannot 



GROBY AND BRADGATE. 19 

say I should have any aversion to John Grey : he plays prison-bars as well as any 
-gentleman in the country, is remarkably dutiful to his parents, and never misses 
church of a Sunday. Three o'clock. — Poor farmer Robinson's house burnt down 
by an accidental fire. John Grey proposed a subscription among the company, 
and gave a matter of no less than five pound himself to this benevolent inten- 
tion. Mem. — Never saw him look so comely as at that moment. Four o'clock 
— Went to prayers. Six o'clock. — Fed the poultry and hogs. Seven o'clock. 
— Supper at the table ; delayed on account of farmer Robinson's fire and mis- 
fortune. The goose pie too much baked, and the loin of pork almost roasted 
to rags. Nine o'clock. — The company almost all asleep. These late hours are 
very disagreeable. Said my prayers a second time, John Grey disturbing my 
thoughts too much the first. Fell asleep about ten, and dreamt that John had 
-come to demand me of my father." 

The union — the foundations of which were thus early laid — was, we 
need not add, duly consummated ^ and no period of the chequered life 
•of Elizabeth Widvile seems so free from care as the years she passed at 
Groby. Brief, however, was her span of happiness. The fatal battle of 
St. Albans proved the last field on which the gallant Sir John Grey 
fought, and the forfeiture of his estates reduced his young and lovely 
widow, with her two infant sons, to a situation of such privation, that, on 
the untimely death of her husband, she was forced to retire for refuge to 
her father, Sir Richard Widvile's house at Grafton ; and here it was that 
Edward IV., chancing to visit that demesne, was especially struck by her 
beauty and distress. A hint consequently was quickly given, that the 
boon she solicited might be granted, and the forfeited estates of the 
husband returned to her lovely boys, who stood weeping by her side ; but 
conditions were annexed, which modern delicacy might shrink to name* 
though it is equally honourable to herself and an age which the present 
is too apt to term barbarous, to add that she rejected them with scorn. 
Moved by the sight of so much beauty and virtue in tears, the monarch 
consequently became the suppliant in turn ; and the same evening saw 
him offer her his throne and his person, in the courtly terms that " the 
Red Rose was again victorious." 

Elizabeth was destined, we need not add, to experience the vicissitudes — 
the alternations of splendour and misery — which occasionally accompany a 
crown. The wife of one monarch for nineteen years, she became, on his 
death, the object of persecution and of love, or cajolery, to another ; but 
the murder of her sons, the young King and Duke of York, in the Tower, 
the assassination of all her relatives, and the subsequent professions 
of devotion to herself, by Richard the Third, are too glowingly detailed 

c 2 



£0 THJB LANDS OF JiNGLA.NO. 

by Shakespeare, to be recapitulated here ; and after she had given 
another child, a daughter, to a throne, by an alliance with Henry the 
Seventh, and thus for ever closed those long dissensions between the 
houses of York and Lancaster, which deluged the plains of England 
with blood, and struck down, it is calculated, three fourths of the ancient 
nobility of England, she became the subject of this penurious tyrant's 
suspicions in her turn, and ultimately died, in little other than the con- 
dition of his prisoner, at the Monastery of Bermondsey, in the year 1492. 
This unhappy lady's son by her first husband, Thomas Grey, Marquess 
of Dorset, became a staunch adherent of the Earl of Richmond, and ob- 
tained, after the successful issue of the Battle of Bosworth, full restitution 
of his hereditary possessions. He returned to his Lordship of Groby, 
and there resided till his death in 1501. His Lordship was the last of 
his race who made Groby the family seat. His son and successor, 
Henry Grey, third Marquess of Dorset, and first Duke of Suffolk, pre- 
ferring the situation of the neighbouring Manor of Bradgate, fixed his 
chief residence there. The alliance he formed was the most illustrious in 
the kingdom, his wife, Frances, being daughter and coheir of Charles 
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and neice of King Henry VIII. His issue 
consisted of three daughters — of these the eldest was the lovely and ever 
interesting Lady Jane Grey, with whose birth Bkadgate is for ever 
identified in posterity's recollection. Her accomplishments were so great, 
that they seem almost incredible ; and her misfortunes so co-equal, that 
they transcend the conceptions of romance. But, before entering on 
her story, we cannot refrain from copying the following singular 
agreement between one of the early barons and King John, proving the 
antiquity of the barony of Bradgate. 

" This is the Agreement made at Leicester on the day of St. Vincent 
the Martyr, in the 31st year of the reign of king Henry, the son of king 
John (before sir Roger de Turkilby, master Simon de Walton, sir Gilbert 
de Preston, and sir John de Cobham, justices then there itinerant), 
between Roger de Q,uincy, earl of Winton, and Roger Somery : To wit : 
that the aforesaid Roger de Somery hath granted for him and his heirs, 
that the aforesaid earl and his heirs may have and hold his park of Brad- 
gate so inclosed as it was inclosed in the Octaves of St. Hilary, in the 
31st year of the aforesaid king Henry, with the deer-leaps [saltatoriis] 
then in it made. And for this agreement and grant, the same earl hath 
granted for him and his heirs, that the same Roger de Somery and his 
heirs may enter at any hour on the forest of him the earl, to chase in it 
[ad bersandum] with nine bows and six hounds, according to the form of 



GROBY AND BBADGATE. 21 

a cyrograph before made, between the aforesaid Roger earl of Winton and 
Hugh de Albiniaco earl of Arundel, in the court of the lord the king at 
Leicester. And if any wild beast, wounded by any of the aforesaid 
bows, shall enter the aforesaid park by any deer-leap or otherwise, it shall 
be lawful for the aforesaid Roger de Somery and his heirs to send one 
man or two of his, who shall follow the aforesaid wild beast, with the 
dogs pursuing that wild beast within the aforesaid park, without bow and 
arrows, and may take it on that day whereon it was wounded, without 
hurt of other wild beasts in the aforesaid park abiding ; so that, if they be 
footmen, they shall enter by some deer-leap or hedge ; and if they be 
horsemen, they shall enter by the gate, if it shall be open ; and otherwise 
shall not enter before they wind their horn for the keeper, if he will come. 
And farther, the same earl hath granted for him and his heirs, that they 
for the future shall every year cause to be taken a brace of bucks in the 
buck-season, and a brace of does in the doe-season, and them cause to be 
delivered at the gate of the aforesaid park to any one of the men of the 
aforesaid Roger de Somery and his heirs, bringing their letters patents 
for the aforesaid deer. The aforesaid earl hath also granted for him and 
his heirs, that they for the future shall make no park, nor augment the 
park beyond the bounds of the hunting-ground of the aforesaid Roger 
and his heirs, besides the antient enclosures of the aforesaid forest. And 
the aforesaid Roger de Somery hath granted for him and his heirs, that 
they for the future shall never enter the aforesaid forest to chase, save 
with nine bows and six hounds ; and that their forestry shall not carry 
in the wood of the aforesaid Roger de Somery and their heirs, barbed 
arrows, but [sagittas barbatas, sed pilettas]. And that his men of 
Rarwe and foresters, within the Octaves of St. Michael, at the Park ford, 
shall do fealty every year to the bailiffs of the aforesaid earl and his heirs 
and other things which to the aforesaid forest belong, according to the 
purport of the cyrograph between the aforesaid earls of Winchester and 
Arundel before made. And this agreement is made between the afore- 
said earl and the aforesaid Roger de Somery and his heirs, all the articles 
in the aforesaid cyrograph made between the aforesaid earls of Winches- 
ter and Arundel contained. And farther, the said earl hath granted for 
him and his heirs, that the one or two of the men of the aforesaid Roger 
de Somery and his heirs, who shall follow the aforesaid wild beast 
wounded, with the dogs pursuing it into the aforesaid park, with the 
aforesaid wild beast, whether they shall have taken it or not, may, with 
the aforesaid dogs, freely and without hindrance, go out through the gate 
of the aforesaid park. And the aforesaid earl and his heirs shall cause 



22 



THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



some one of their servants to give notice to the aforesaid Roger de Somery 
and his heirs at Barwe, on what day he shall send for the abovesaid deer 
to the aforesaid place at the aforesaid times ; and this notice they shall 
cause to be given to them six days before the aforesaid day. In witness 
whereof each to the others writing hath put to his seal. And it is to be 
observed, that the time of buck-season [tempus penguedinis] here is com- 
puted between the feast of St. Peter ad vincula [August 1st] and the ex- 
haltation of the Holy Cross [Sep. 14th] ; and the time of doe-season 
[tempus firmatationis] between the feast of St. Martin and the purifica- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin." 

Associated in common ideas with the name of Lady Jane Grey, is the 
supposition that her pretensions to the Crown were altogether unfounded ; 
but the following pedigree will prove that Lady Jane Grey stood in a 
position not far removed from the throne. 

Sir John Grey, succeeded as Lord Ferrars of Groby,= Elizabeth Widvile, eldest dau. = Edw. IV.; 
1458; and was slain at the battle of St. Albans, I and co-heir of Sir Richard Wid- second 
Feb. 17, 1460-61 — first husband. | vile, afterwards Earl Rivers. | husband 



Anne, on-=Sir Thomas Grey, 
ly dau. of succeeded as Lord 
Ferrars of Groby, 
1461 ; created Earl 
of Huntingdon Au- 
gust 24, 1471, and 
first Marquis of 
Dorset of the fam- 
ily of Grey, April 
18, 1475; K.G. and 
a Privy Counsellor 
to HenryVII. Died 
April 10, 1501; bur. 
at Astley. 



Henry 
Holland, 
Earl of Ex- 
eter ; died 
*. p. — first 
wife. 



=Cicely, 
dau. and 
heir of 
William 
Lord 
Bonvile 
and 

Harring- 
ton — se- 
cond 
wife. 



Sir Ri- 


4 Eli- = 


=Henry 


1. Edward V.l 


chard 


zabeth 


VII. 


2. Richard. 


Grey, be- 






3. George. 


headed 






5. Catherine. 


at Pon- 






6. Cicely. 


tefract 






7. Ann. 


Castle, 






8. Bridget. 


1483. 






9. Mary. 
10. Margaret. 



I I I I I I I I I 

\ smothered 
/ 1483. 



Eleanor,= 
dau. of 
Oliver 
St John, 
died s. p. 
—first 
wife. 



I 

: Thorn as Grey,= 
succeeded as se- 
cond Marquis of 
Dorset, &c, 1501 
■ — Chief Justice 
of all the Ming's 
forests, 1524, K.G. 
— died 1530 — 
bur. at Astley. 



Margaret, 
dau. of Sir 
Robert 
Wotton of 
Bocton, in 
Kent, and 
widow of 
William 
Medley — 
second 
wife. 



I I I 

Arthur, Henry Margaret, 

mar. to VIII. married 
Cathe- James IV. 

rine of of Scot- 

Arra- land, in 

gom 1502. 



I 

Louis XII.— Mary=Charles 
of France Brandon 

— died s.p. Duke of 

-first hus Suffolk 

band. —second 

husband 



Catherine, daughter =Henry Grey, succeeded as third Marquis of Dorset. : 
of William Fitz Alan, &c, 1530; Constable of England, 1547; Justice of 
Earl of Arundel;— the King's Forests, 1550; Warden of the East, 
died *. p.— first wife. West, and Middle Marches, 1551 ; created Duke of 
Suffolk, Oct. 5, 1551; K.G. ; attainted and be- 
headed Feb. 22, 1553-4. 



Frances, eldest daughter 
and co-heir of Charles 
Brandon, Duke of Suf- 
folk; died Nov. 21,1659; 
buried in Westminster 
Abbey — second wife. 



Lady Jane Grey, married Catherine, mar. 1st, Henry Herbert, eldest son of Mary, married Mar- 

Guilford Dudley, fourth William, Earl of Pembroke— divorced ; 2dly, Ed- tin Keys, of Kent ; 

son of John, Duke of ward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, by whom she bad died 1578. 

Northumberland ; was three sons and a daughter, and died a prisoner in 

proclaimed Queen on the the Tower, Jan. 26, 1567. 
death of Edward VI., and 
beheaded Feb. 12, 1553-4. 



One of the chief beauties of Mr. Pottei's History of Charnwood, in our 



GROBY AND BRADGATE. 23 

estimation, is, that instead of overloading it with his own descriptions : he, 
whenever the narrative admits, trusts to unfolding it by means of quota- 
tions from old and contemporary authors, who depict incidents with a 
minuteness and an air of truth with which modern writers would vainly 
attempt to cope. He thus, for instance, details the mournful circum- 
stances of her execution, chiefly from chroniclers who lived near the era, 
or, possibly, witnessed the tragic scene. 

The night before her execution, after having long been engaged in her 
devotions, the Lady Jane took up a Greek Testament, and having atten» 
tively perused it for some time, she wrote, on some blank pages at the end, 
that " most godly and learned exhortation " to her sister, Lady Katherine, 
which has justly been admired as one of the most surprising epistles ever 
penned by a person on the very verge of eternity. She also wrote a letter 
to her father, full of tenderness, respect, and affection, and having per- 
formed this last sisterly and filial duty, she again knelt in prayer, and then 
sank into a tranquil sleep. 

Heylin thus describes her conduct on the last morrow : — " The fatal 
morning being come, the Lord Guilford earnestly desired the officers 
that he might take his farewell of her : which, though they willingly 
permitted, yet upon notice of it she advised the contrary, assuring him 
that such a meeting would rather add to his afflictions than increase that 
quiet wherewith they had possessed their souls for the stroke of death, 
* * * that it was to be feared her presence would rather weaken than 
strengthen him; that he ought to take courage from his reason and 
derive constancy from his own heart ; that if his soul were not firm and 
settled, she could not settle it by her eyes, nor confirm it by her words ; 
that he should do well to remit this interview to the other world ; that 
there, indeed, friendships were happy and unions undissolvable. * * * 
All she could do was to give him a farewell out of a window as he passed 
towards the place of his dissolution." 

This farewell — the spectacle of her husband's headless body, and all 
the other most mournful trials of that hour, were endured with a serenity 
and fortitude which Christian hope alone could impart. " She knew," 
she said, " she was upon the point of meeting with him in a better 
conjuncture, where they should never find the like intermission of their 

joys." 

Another writer thus depicts her closing scene : — " The Lady Jane, 
whose lodging was in Master Partridge's house, did see his [her husband's] 
dead carcasse taken out of the cart as well as she did see him before alive 
going to his death — a sight, as might be supposed, to her worse than 



24 THE LANDS OP ENGLAND. 

death. By this time was there a scaffold made upon the greene ovey 
against the White Tower, for the Ladie Jane to die upon, who being no- 
thing at all abashed, neither with fear of hir own death, which then 
approached, neither with the sight of the dead carcasse of her husband 
when he was brought to the chappell, come forth, the lieutenant leading 
hir, with countenance nothing abashed, neither hir eies any thing moistened 
with teares, with a booke in her hand wherein she praied untill she came 
to the said scaffold, whereon she was mounted : this noble young ladie, 
as she was indued with singular gifts both of learning and knowledge so 
was she as mild and patient as anie lamb at hir execution, and a little be- 
fore her death uttered these words : ' Goode people, I come hether to die, 
and by lawe I am condemned to the same. The facte r indeede, against 
the Quene's highnes was unlawful and the consenting thereunto by me : 
but touching the procurement and desyne thereof by me, or on my halfe, 
I doo wash my hands thereof in innocencie before God and the face of 
you good Christian people this day.' (And therewith she wrung hir 
hands in which she had hir booke.) Then she sayd, ' I pray you all, 
good Christian people, to bere me wytness that I dye a true Christian 
woman, and that I looke to be saved by none other mene, but only by 
the mercy of God in the merites of the blond of his only sonne Jesus 
Christ : and I confessed when I dyd know the word of God I neglected 
the same, and loved myselfe and the world, and therefore this plage and 
punyshment is happely and worthely happened unto me for my sinnes. 
And yet I thank God of his goodness that he hath thus given me a tyme 
and respect to repent. And now, good people, while I am alyve I praie 
you to assyst me with your praiers.' And then she knelyng down she 
turned to Fecknam, saying, ' Shall I say this psalm V And he said ' Yes.' 
Then she said the psalm of Miserere mei Deus in English, in the most de- 
vout manner to the ende. Then she stoode up and gave hir mayde, Mistress 
Tylney, hir gloves and handkereher : and hir booke to Maister Thomas 
Bridges, the lyvetenante's brother. Forthwith she untyed hir gowne. The 
hangman went to hir to have helped her of therwith, then she desyred him 
to let her alone ; turning towardes hir two gentlewomen who helped hir 
of therwith, and also hir frose paste and neckercher, geving to her a faire 
handkereher to knytte about hir eies. Then the hangman kneeled down 
and asked hir forgeveness, whome she forgave most willingly. Then he, 
willed hir to stand upon the strawe, which doing she sawe the block. 
Then she said, ' I pray you dispatche me quickly.' Then she kneeled 
down, saying, ' Wil you take it of before I lay me down ? ' And the 
hangman answered her, *No, Madame.' She tyed the kercher about hir 



GROBY AND BRADGATE. 25 

eies ; then, feeling for the blocke, said, ' What shall I do ? Where is it V 
One of the standers-by guyding hir thernnto, she layde hir head downe 
upon the blocke and stretched forth hir body, and sayde, ' Lord, into thy 
handes I commend my spirite.' Thus perished, in the bloom of youth, 
this most amiable and gifted lady — on the 12th of February, 1544. * 

The deaths on the scaffold of the Duke of Suffolk, and of his brother 
the Lord Thomas Grey, were the closing scene of this mournful tragedy. 
One brother, Lord John Grey, obtained pardon, and from him descended 
the subsequent Lords Grey of Groby — Earls of Stamford — in whose 
representative, the present Earl, Groby and Bradgate now vest. The 
latter ancient hall continued to be the family seat, until the early part of 
the last century, when it was destroyed by fire, and left in the state in 
which it now stands. The conflagration is thus described by Throsby : — 
"It is said of the wife of the Earl of Stamford, who last inhabited 
Bradgate Hall, that she set it on fire at the instigation of her sister, who 
then lived in London. The story is thus told : — Some time after the 
Earl had married, he brought his lady to his seat at Bradgate : her sister 
wrote, to her, desiring to know how she liked her habitation, and the 
country she was in : the Countess wrote for answer, ' that the house was 
tolerable, that the country was a forest, and the inhabitants all brutes.' 
The sister, in consequence, by letter, desired her to set fire to the house, 
and run away by the light of it : the former part of the request, it is 
said, she immediately put in practice, and thus this celebrated and inter- 
esting mansion was consigned to the flames." In addition to the honour 
of being the birth-place of Lady Jane Grey, Bradgate could boast of a 
royal visit from King William III., who was entertained at its hospitable 
hall for several days. 

Connected with the noble house of Grey and their stately possessions, 
it may be by no means inappropriate to conclude with the following 
ballad, for which we are indebted to Mr. Potter : — 



* " Admiration of the life, and pity for the unmerited death of this extraordinary 
lady, have been evinced by the thousands of pilgrimages to the place of her birth — 
pilgrimages which will be continued while a love for what is greatly good shall ani- 
mate British bosoms. For what but the 'sweet memory' of Lady Jane has invested 
Bradgate with such a charm? It is not confessedly the ruins; it is not the oaks; or 
the scenery of the park; it is mainly the association cf the spot with the name of the 
ten-days' Queen, whose character will continue to he a theme for praise, when * the 
Beauties are forgotten ; and whose fate, in all gentle breasts, will be mourned 'till 
Pity's self he dead."— Potter's " Charnwood." 



20 TUB LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



Legend of the Holy Well. 



The oaks of the Forest were autumn-tinged, 
And the winds were at sport with their leaves,. 

When a Maiden traversed the rugged rocks 
That Frown over Woodhouse Eaves. 

The rain fell fast — she heeded it not — 

Though no hut or home appears ; 
She scarcely knew if the falling drops 

Were rain- drops or her tears. 

Onward she hied through the Outwoods dark— 
(And the Outwoods were darker then :) 

She feared not the Forest's deep'ning gloom — 
She feared unholy men. 

Lord Comyn's scouts were in close pursuit, 
For Lord Corny n the maid had seen, 

And had marked her mother's only child 
For his paramour, I ween. 

A whistle, a whoop, from the Butk Hyll's side 

Told Agnes her foes were nigh 
And screened by the cleft of an aged oak 

She heard quick steps pass by. 

Dark and dread fell that Autumn night : 

The wind gusts fitful blew : 
The thunder rattled : — the lightning's glare 

Shewed Beacon's crags to view 

The thunder neared — the lightning played 

Around that sheltering oak ; 
But Agnes, of men, not God afraid, 

Shrank not at the lightning's stroke ! 

The thunder passed — the silvery moon 
Burst forth from her cave of cloud, 

And shewed in the glen " red Comyn's " men, 
And she breathed a prayer aloud : — 



GRGBY AND BRADGATE. 27 

" Maiden mother of God ! look down — 

List to a maiden's prayer : 
Keep undefiled my mother's sole child — 

The spotless are thy care." ***** 

The sun had not glinted on Beacon's Hill 

Ere the Hermit of Holy Well 
Went forth to pray, as his wont each day, 

At the Cross in Fayre-oak dell. 

Ten steps had he gone from the green grassy mound 

Still hemming the Holy Well Haw, 
When stretched on the grass — by the path he must pass 

A statue-like form he saw ! 

He crossed himself once, he crossed himself twice, 

And he knelt by the corse in prayer : 
" Jesu Maria ! cold as ice — 

Cold— Cold— but still how fair I " 

The hermit upraised the stiffened form, 

And he bore to the holy well : 
Three Paters or more he muttered o'er, 

And he filled his scallop shell. 

He sprinkled the lymph on the maiden's face, 

And he knelt and he prayed at her side — 
Not a minute's space had he gazed on her face 

Ere signs of life he spied. * * * * 

Spring had invested the Charnwood oaks 

With their robe of glist'ning green, 
When on palfreys borne, one smiling morn, 

At the Holy Well Haw was seen 

A youth and a lady, passing fair, 

Who asked for the scallop shell : 
A sparkling draught each freely quaffed, 

And they blessed the Holy Well. 

They blessed that well, and they fervently blessed 

The holy Hermit too ; 
To that and to him they filled to the brim 

The scallop, and drank anew. 



28 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

a Thanks, Father thanks to this Well and th?e " 
Said the youth, " but to Heav'n most, 

I owe the life of the fairest wife 

That Charnwood's bounds ean boast. 

" The blushing bride thou seest at my side, 

(Three hours ago made mine) 
Is she who from death was restored to breatl 

By Heaven's own hand and thine. 

" The Prior of Ulverscroft made us one, 

And we hastened here to tell 
How much we owe to kind Heav'n and thee 

For the gift of the Holy Well. 

" In proof of which — to the Holy Well Hav» 

I give, as a votive gift, 
From year to year three fallow deer, 

And the right of the challenge drift. 

" I give, besides, of land two hides, 

To be marked from the Breedon Brand : 

To be held while men draw from the Well in this Haw 
A draught with the hollow hand." 

The Hermit knelt, and the Hermit rose, 

And breathed " Benedecite — " 
" And tell me," he said, with a hand on each head, 

" What heav'n-sent pair I see ? " 

" This is the lost De Ferrars' child, 

Who dwelt at the Steward's Hay ; 
And, Father, my name — yet unknown to fame, 

Is simply Edward Grey." 



AUDLEY END. 29 



&utJtej) KBvti, 



The magnificent seat of Lord Braybrooke, whether regarded in relation 
to its present splendour, or the haunting associations of its earlier pos- 
sessors, holds a foremost rank amongst the baronial halls of Great 
Britain. 

It is situated in the county of Essex, where, in the parish of Saffron 
Walden, there was a manor anciently vested in the Crown, as well as an 
abbey called Walden, appropriated by it at the dissolution. The two 
properties, when united, were granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Thomas 
Audley, who succeeded the illustrious Sir Thomas More in the tenure of 
the Great Seals ; and the whole estate has been, from the name of its new 
proprietor, henceforward called Audley End. The Chancellor, thus 
rewarded with spoils of the monastic corporations, the dissolution of 
which he had actively promoted, was in 1538 raised to the peerage by the 
title of Baron Audley of Walden. 

Margaret Audley, his daughter and heiress, married first, Lord Henry 
Dudley, younger brother to the husband of the Lady Jane Grey ; and 
afterwards, on his decease without issue, she became the second wife of 
Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk. After the early death of his 
three wives, the latter nobleman entered into a treaty of marriage with 
Mary Queen of Scots, when the blood which aspired to a throne flowed 
upon the block. Margaret Audley was thus successively allied to the 
two most ambitious houses that appeared during the dynasty of the 
Tudors, and which each in turn endeavoured to grasp a crown matri- 
monial. 

From the first marriage of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, the bearer at 
the present day of that illustrious title is descended. Of the second mar- 
riage were two sons — William, the younger, ancestor of the Earls of 
Carlisle, and the Howards of Corby ; and Thomas, the elder, who, in- 
heriting from his mother the estate of Audley End, was, in consideration 
of his noble birth, and in reward of his naval services, summoned to Par- 
liament by Queen Elizabeth, as Baron Howard of Walden. 

As the bright but baneful influence of the malignant star of the Scot- 
tish Queen had involved the house of Howard in ruin, James, through 
perhaps some sentiment of filial piety and gratitude, commenced his reign 
with a determination to re-establish it in surpassing honour ; and, as an 



30 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

earnest of his intention, he, on the 21st of July, 1603, raised Lord Howard 
to the title of Earl of Suffolk, and shortly afterwards appointed him Lord 
High Chamberlain. In execution of the routine of his office, it was the 
Earl's duty to ascertain that the necessary preparations were made for 
the opening of each session of Parliament ; hence, on the 4th of Novem- 
ber, 1605, he visited the houses of Parliament in company with Lord 
Monteagle, a letter to whom had given the first intimation of the gun- 
powder plot ; and then entering the cellars under them, and casting an 
apparently careless glance on the coal under which the barrels of gun- 
powder were concealed, he observed to Guy Faukes, who was present 
under the designation of Percy's servant, that his master had laid in an 
abundant provision of fuel. The next morning, a little after midnight, 
Faukes was arrested at the door of the vault. In 1618 the Earl of 
Suffolk was constituted Lord High Treasurer of England ; but in about 
four years more, having, as the father-in-law of the fallen courtier, Robert 
Carr, Earl of Somerset, become obnoxious to the new favourite, Buck- 
ingham, he was charged with peculation, deprived of hi3 staff of office, 
and committed for a short period to the Tower, together with his Coun- 
tess, to whose rapacity the ground afforded for this painful accusation has 
been principally ascribed. It was this Earl who erected the magnificent 
palace of Audley End. He died in 1 626, leaving a large family. Of his 
younger children, his second son, Thomas, was created Earl of Berkshire, 
and is ancestor of the present Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire. His 
fifth son, Sir Robert, a gallant cavalier soldier, was but too notorious 
in his own day for his intrigue with the Viscountess Purbeck, the beauti- 
ful and ill-assorted daughter of Chief-Justice Coke ; and his sixth son, 
Edward, was created Baron Howard of Escrick. 

Theophilus, the eldest son of the first Earl of Suffolk, succeeded to 
the title and the chief mansion of his father, and had a son and successor, 
James, the third Earl, who, about the year 1668, sold the park and man- 
sion of Audley End to King Charles II. Henceforward this now royal 
palace often became the resort of the gay court of the witty monarch, the 
hereditary residences of whose ancestors had, in several instances, been 
destroyed during the wars of the Commonwealth. Earl James left at 
his decease two daughters, the coheirs of the barony of Howard of Wal- 
den. His earldom of Suffolk passed successively to his surviving younger 
brothers, and then remained for some time with the descendants of the 
youngest of them. 

The purchase money of Audley End was £50,000, and of this £20,000 
was left in mortgage on the estate, and continued unpaid at the Revolu- 



AUDLKY END. 31 

tion. In 17-01, therefore, the demesne was conveyed back again to the 
family of Howard ; and the fifth Earl of Suffolk, on receiving it, relin- 
quished his claim upon the Crown for the remainder of the debt. His 
descendant, the tenth Earl, died without issue in 1733; when the earldom 
devolved on his distant cousin, Henry Bowes Howard, fourth Earl of 
Berkshire. 

But the estates of Audley End were destined to take a different direc- 
tion. Their possession was disputed between the second Earl of Effing- 
ham, who claimed under a settlement in his favour, executed, after suffer- 
ing a recovery, by the seventh Earl of Suffolk ; and the heir of the two 
daughters of the third Earl of Suffolk ; and as it turned out that the 
seventh earl was only tenant for life of the property, the courts of law 
rejected the title of him whom he had nominated. The successful 
claimants on the part of one of these daughters, the Lady Essex Howard, 
wife of Lord Griffin, were the Honourable Elizabeth Griffin, married 
first to Henry Neville Grey, Esq., and secondly, to the Earl of Ports- 
mouth, and her sister Ann, wife of William Whitwell, Esq. It is not 
here necessary to render the history more complicated, by noticing the 
heir of the second daughter of Lord Suffolk. 

Lady Portsmouth had no issue by either of her husbands ; but Mrs. 
"Whitwell had a son, in whose favour the abeyance of the barony of 
Howard of Walden was terminated, and who acquired the inheritance of 
his aunt and his mother. This Lord Howard had no children ; and con- 
sequently, in consideration that his mother was sprung, through her 
maternal grandmother, from the ancient and historic stock of Neville, he 
successfully used his influence to procure for himself another barony, 
that of Braybrooke, with a remainder to his relative, Richard Neville, 
whose father, Richard Aldworth, Esq., maternally descended from the 
house of Neville, had assumed its name. 

On the death of Lord Howard, which took place in 1797, Richard 
Neville, who has just been mentioned, succeeded to his kinsman's title, 
as second Lord Braybrooke, and, under a previous arrangement with the 
deceased peer's only surviving sister and heir, the wife of the Rev. Dr. 
Parker, Rector of St. James's, Westminster, obtained immediate posses- 
sion of the mansion and unentailed portion of the estate. The other 
part his lordship succeeded to, at the decease s. p. of the same lady, who 
had assumed the surname of Griffin. Richard, second Lord Braybrooke, 
married Catherine, daughter of the Right Honourable George Gren- 
ville, herself deducing a maternal pedigree from Theophilus, second Earl 
of Suffolk, one of the ancient proprietors of her husband's seat. By this 



32 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

lady he had issue, Richard, the present Lord Braybrooke, who, by the 
composition of an interesting and elegantly-written quarto volume, on 
the history of Audley End and its ancient possessors, has evinced his 
deep interest in all the ennobling associations connected with the vener- 
able mansion which has so auspiciously devolved upon him. 

The house, we have already mentioned, was erected by the first Earl 
of Suffolk, who on its construction is said to have expended about 
£190,000, a stupendous sum, if we consider the scarcity of money in 
that age. The name of Bernard Jansen and John Thorpe are competi- 
tors for the fame of its architect ; but those who have most attentively 
investigated the matter incline towards the latter. 

For the appearance it wore in 1654 we will quote the high authority 
of John Evelyn — " It is," says the author of the Sylvae, " a mixed 
fabric between ancient and modern, but observable for its being com- 
pletely finished, and is one of the stateliest palaces in the kingdom. It 
consists of two courts, the first very large, winged with cloisters. . . . 
It has a bowling alley, and a nobly well-walled wooded park. The river 
(Granta) glides before the palace, to which is an avenue of lime trees ; 
but all this is much diminished by its being placed in an obscure bottom. 
For the rest, it is a perfectly uniform structure, and shews without like 
a diadem by the decorations of the cupolas and other ornaments on the 
pavilions." 

The architecture of the time of James L, like the mind of the reigning 
monarch, allowing some intrusion of classic decoration, still retained 
much of the Gothic. Thence we meet with the huge mullioned windows, 
occupying a considerable proportion of the sides of the house, and occa- 
sionally a profusion of elaborate stone tracery, grotesque, yet beautiful, 
like the wreathings of some ancient illuminated manuscript, while in the 
centre of the building appear columns surmounted with Grecian 
capitals. 

This vast pile has, in the lapse of time, been subjected to considerable 
alterations and curtailments ; but it has for the most part been treated 
with that taste and consideration which seems to have been transmitted 
to the present Lord Braybrooke, together with the noble estate on which 
it is his fortune to be able to display it. 

Scattered through the rooms are many interesting portraits ; some of 
them likenesses of the ancient possessors of the domain. Amongst these 
will be viewed with interest that of Lord Chancellor Audley, by Holbein, 
and of his daughter, the Duchess of Norfolk, who, if Lucas de Heere 
were no flatterer, had other attractions besides her broad lands. 



PIXTON PARK. 33 



Pjtton :Pavfc, near 39uT6erton, Somerset, 

"Here lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride, 
And brighter streams than famed Hydaspis glide." — Goldsmith. 

Somersetshire is not unknown in story, and till within late years 
the remoteness of its geographical position caused both the county 
and its inhabitants to retain much of what was primitive in scenery, in 
dialect, and in manners. In this county the glorious banner of the Cross 
was first planted, and the piety of holier times is here found in frequent 
and melancholy contrast with the destructive intolerance of religious 
fanaticism. Many beautiful and interesting ruins attest this — Glaston- 
bury, the Palace at Wells, the Abbey of Cleve, &c. &c. The wild ex- 
citement of the people, and the eager avarice of a capricious tyrant, 
involved in a blind and fatal destruction edifices and institutions which 
might have been purged of any existing follies or misdeeds, and, by a 
judicious reformation and reconstruction, have been saved for the public 
weal, and remained to this day memorials of the enlightened benevolence 
of our ancestors, and the respectful gratitude of their posterity. Passing 
by, however, these considerations, and the many striking historical events 
connected with Somerretshire, from the concealment of Alfred in the 
Isle of Axholme, to the battle of Sedgemoor, we will confine 
this article to a short description of one of those ancient homes 
which may be well said to bear out FalstafF's speech to Justice 
Shallow, " You have here a goodly dwelling and a rich." The estate of 
Pixton and its dependant manors were formerly parcel of the extensive 
domains of the Acland family, now so worthily represented by the re- 
spectable and highly respected Baronet of Kellerton, Sir Thomas Dyke 
Acland. The second Earl of Carnarvon, of the illustrious lineage of 
Herbert, married in 1796, Elizabeth Kitty, daughter and sole heiress of 
Colonel John Dyke Acland, eldest son of Sir Thomas Acland, Bart., but 
the Colonel dying before his father, the title, with the Kellerton estates, 
devolved on the present Baronet, and the Pixton portion became the 
inheritance of the Countess of Carnarvon, and is now in the possession of 
her son, the present Earl. This beautiful and interesting property pos- 
sesses so many charms, retains such old associations, there is so much of 
salubrity and exhilaration about its healthy uplands and its echoing 
vales, that the attachment of every member of the family to this spot is 

D 



34 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

not to be wondered at, and it is in this lovely retreat that the present 
noble proprietor spends a portion of his time every year, in that calm and 
placid retirement so congenial to minds imbued with the love of nature, 
and anxious for literary ease and leisure. Part of the old gabled mansion 
was pulled down by the late Earl, and the plain and unadorned structure 
which took its place, standing boldly out on an abrupt eminence com- 
manding the valley of the Barle, and sheltered and surrounded by deep 
woods of ancient oak, is, particularly as you approach it from the south- 
east, at once striking and picturesque. The road from Tiverton to Dul- 
verton passes through the domain, and after rounding the base of Ellers- 
down, it enters a beautiful and spreading vale, now winding through 
dark recesses of ancestral groves, now emerging on the steep banks of the 
Barle, which, in a wild and rapid torrent, pours its giant might over 
ledges of opposing rock, foaming and roaring in its course. 

The general aspect of this district is hilly ; the eminences are rounded, 
seldom presenting any romantic formations, in the distant outlines ; many 
are cultivated to the very summit, whereas some, particularly as you ap- 
proach the wilds of Exmoor, present tracks of heathland as far as the eye 
can reach. The park of Pixton is of a peculiar character, wild, steep, 
and undulating. As seen from the mansion, nothing can be more pictu- 
resque. To the left is a rising bank, studded with beeches and groves of 
fir ; in front, the ground falls into a romantic glen, the favourite resort of 
herds of fallow deer, which, reposing in this sheltered spot, shew their 
" forked heads" above the luxuriant fern, or graze in groups along the sunny 
glades. This is a lovely spot, refreshing to the eye to gaze upon. The 
ancient thorn, the fantastic oak, the leafy chesnut, aid with their charms 
this forest scene, and constitute a foreground oftener described than wit- 
nessed. From this glen the ground again rising eastward loses itself in a 
grove of majestic oaks; while to the right, and far below, is the lovely 
vale of the Barle, with its verdant meads, its murmuring waters, and its 
hanging woods. 

It is an unusual peculiarity of this fine property, that it is intersected 
and watered by no less than three rivers of some magnitude, the Exe, 
the Barle, and the Haddeo, each flowing through its own valley, and each 
possessing its peculiar attractions and characteristics. The Exe, rising 
in the neighbouring Forest of Exmoor, flows through a delicious and well- 
cultivated vale, washing in its course the now scanty and ivied ruins of 
an ancient Priory,* about two miles above Pixton, till suddenly arriving at 

* A great portion of the ruins of this monastic house were removed by a neigh- 
bouring proprietor, and used to build a summer-house on the hill above. 



PIXTON PARK 85 

Exebridge, to the south it pursues its course by Tiverton and Exeter to 
the sea. The Barle, rising in the same direction, is, as we before stated, 
a swift and restless stream, forcing its way through narrow vallies amid op- 
posing rocks, till, after passing the town of Dulverton, it unites its waters 
with the Exe, at the point where it quits the Pixton domain. Among 
the bleak hills where this river takes its rise, is the remote parish of 
Hawkridge, the road to which is a mere mountain path, but leading through 
a succession of fine and varied scenery, such as, once seen, can never be 
forgotten. Perhaps one of the wildest and most picturesque spots in this 
county is to be found in this district, at the point where the rapid Dane's- 
brook, pouring its waters from the distant moors, unites with the Barle. 
An isolated eminence standing boldy apart from the precipitous hills 
around, and covered with wood to its very summit, here parts the streams 
till they join at its eastern base, and then, in one long and beautiful 
reach, pursue their way through rocks and overhanging woods till they 
approach the old tower of Dulverton Church, rising from its glassy slope 
above the surrounding buildings. 

But the Haddeo, or, as the inhabitants term it, the Haddon Yeo,* is 
the glory of the Pixton domain. From its source to its junction with 
the Exe, it rarely, if ever, leaves the property, and the varied scenes of 
tranquil beauty and almost savage wildness through which it passes are 
far beyond our bounds to describe. The road from the little hamlet of 
Berry skirts, " the extremest verge of the swift brook," sometimes 
hemmed in by thick copses of primaeval oak, sometimes opening out in 
view of the wild heathery summits of Haddon, and it presents during 
its whole course, to the admiring traveller, scenes of beauty and interest 
certainly not surpassed in this or even in the adjoining county. This 
district is the resort of the few herds of red-deer that yet survive the 
modern law of extinction. These last tenants of the ancient free warren 
and free cbase, of once " merrie Englande," are seen occasionally at early 
morn, or dewy eve, to wend their way slowly and cautiously down the 
steep sides of this narrow vale to quench their thirst and bathe their 
dappled skins " in the swift brook that brawls along the wood." Here, 
under the shade of "melancholy boughs," they drink and lave their 
panting sides, and, as if conscious that their hours are numbered, and 
their kingdom all but lost, they are startled at the least sound, and 
hastily seek the covert of those tangled brakes, which ere long are 
probably destined to destruction for the purposes of what we suspect 
may in the end prove but a profitless cultivation. The care with which 

* Yeo is doubtless a corruption of the word eau ; shewing Norman occupation. 

D 2 



^6 THE LAUDS OF FMCLAIJl). 

these interesting remnants of a former age are preserved and cherished 
by the noble owner, is alike creditable to his principles and his taste. 
But legislation soon will do its work, and all that still remains of the 
scenery and manners of sports of other days will soon be swept away 
before the utilitarian notions of the present age. This was the county 
of wonderful exploits in flood and field, when the hardy proprietors of 
these dales turned out to hunt the deer ; and many a tale of marvellous 
feats still lingers round the Christmas hearth, and cheers the long evenings 
in the moorland farm. Fresh inclosures, however, are rapidly driving 
the deer to their wildest and remotest haunts, and like the aborigines of 
other lands, they will soon only live in rural tradition. The staghounds 
were, if we are correctly informed, for many years a kind of heir-loom 
at Pixton, and the bold Aclands were ever foremost in promoting the 
sport and protecting the game. The branching, antlers of many a noble 
buck now grace the hall, and to each of these there is probably some 
wild tradition attached, which ere long will sound incredible to degen- 
erate ears. How far the annihilation of these hardy sports, and of the 
constant intercourse and kindly feelings thus promoted between the 
lords of the soil and their tenants and dependents, will result in a 
better social system, we doubt. We view with sorrow not unmingled 
with anxiety, the mighty changes which are taking place in the various 
relations of social life, and we feel how much all the manlier, confiding, 
and more generous qualities of the English character are yielding to the 
spirit of an all-pervading selfishness, and the love of money. Lovely 
Pixton ! long may thy heathy hills and woodland slopes, thy grassy 
vales and teeming brooks, retain the character of bye-gone days — long 
may thy hardy peasantry revere their lord, and find in him, as heretofore, 
their benefactor and their friend — may the simple habits and primitive 
feelings of thy people know no change but what a more confiding faith, 
more rural knowledge, may confer — and may thy remote and peaceful 
dales never be visited with the blight of that modern culture, which 
teaches men to feel the inequalities of life, but gives no principles to bear 
them. 



VALE ROYAL. 



Walt Boual, Qfyttfyivt. 

" Ah, then most happy, if thy vale below 
Wash, with the crystal coolness of its rills, 
Some mouldering Abbey's ivy-vested wall." — Mason. 

Thk Monastery of Vale Royal owed its origin to the piety of Edward, 
eldest son of King Henry III. Tradition asserts that the Prince, on his 
return from an expedition to the Holy Land, was on the point of suffer- 
ing shipwreck in a dreadful storm, when he made a vow to the Virgin 
that if she interposed her aid for the preservation of himself and his crew, 
he would found a Convent for a hundred Monks of the Cistercian Order. 
The vow, continues the Chronicle of Vale Royal, was instantaneously 
accepted, the vessel righted itself and was miraculously brought into port : 
the sailors disembarked, and the Prince landed last of all ; the divine 
protection then terminated, and every fragment of the wreck vanished under 
the waters. Without further reference to this traditionary tale of super- 
stition, certain it is that Edward, shortly after his accession to the throne, 
planted a colony of the Dernhall Monks, at Vale Royal, and himself laid 
the first stone of the Monastery on the site of the High Altar. A bril- 
liant concourse of nobles encircled the Monarch, and the Queen herself 
participated in the ceremony. 

The veracious chronicler of Vale Royal does not allow this memorable 
occasion to pass without comment and monkish fable ; he boldly asserts 
that, for ages before, on the Festivals of the Virgin, amidst the solitude 
that then reigned on its future site, the shepherds had heard music and 
celestial voices, and had seen occasional radiance that changed the dark- 
ness to day ; and he further declares that old people, who had lived at the 
building of the fabric, had seen the holy pile from turret to foundation 
stone, glittering in the night with a miraculous illumination, visible to the 
rest of the country at a surprising distance. 

But the Abbey of Vale Royal was intrinsically too grand to require these 
artificial adornments. For nearly three centuries it exhibited a state of vast 
splendour and power ; its Abbot held a position equal to that of many 
principal barons. Like them he had his Seneschal, and his under Seneschal; 
the ordinary law of his court was administered by a coroner and the 
bailiffs of Over and Weverham, in whom a capital jurisdiction was vested 
He had his Page to attend upon him in the Abbey, and his Palfrey man to 
hold the reins of his horse on his journies, in which he appears to have 
travelled with a powerful retinue, and to have been attended by consider- 
able families of the county. 



38 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

At the dissolution of the Monasteries, Vale Royal was granted to 
Sir Thomas Holcroft, (second son of John Holcroft, of Holcroft,) 
a successful courtier who acquired his fortune by his situation of 
esquire of the body to King Henry VIII., and was one of the Cheshire 
gentlemen who received Knighthood at Leith, in 1544. In his family, 
the beautiful lands of the dissolved Religious House remained vested 
two generations, and were sold in l6l6, to Mary, Lady Cholmonde- 
ley, widow of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, of Cholmondeley, and daughter of 
Christopher Holford, Esq., of Holford. This richly portioned heiress had 
the honour of a visit from King James I., in 1617, and ever after bore the 
designation of " The Bold Ladie of Cheshire," which the Monarch had applied 
to her. Referring to the Royal coming, the White Gate Register records, 
that " on the 21st daye of Auguste, being Thursdaye, King James came 
to Vale Royale, and there kept his Court until Mondaye after." 

Lady Cholmondeley survived, until 15th August, 1625, when by In- 
quisition, she appears to have died, siezed, inter alia, " of the site 
of the late dissolved Monastery of Vale Royal,'' and to have given 
it to her fourth son, Thomas Cholmondeley, Esq. This gentleman, a 
stanch Royalist, was distinguished in the great civil war, and, after many 
privations, had to compound for £450. His son, Thomas Cholmondeley, 
Esq., of Vale Royal, High Sheriff of Cheshire, at the Restoration, was 
included in the list of those on whom it was intended to confer the order 
of the Royal Oak. He married in 1684, Anne, eldest daughter of Sir 
Walter St. John, Bart., of Battersea, and by her was father of Charles 
Cholmondeley, Esq., of Vale Royal, M.P. for Cheshire, whose grand- 
son, the present possessor of this broad domain, is Thomas Cholmondeley, 
Baron Delamere. 

The mansion of Vale Royal, as it now stands, consists of a centre with 
two projecting wings of red stone. Of the original Abbey there is 
nothing remaining save a few doorways in the offices, but much of the 
portion erected by the Holcrofts may still be traced. The most striking 
feature in the edifice is the Great Hall ; a magnificent apartment, seventy 
feet in length, with a coved roof, supported by carved ribs of oak in the 
style of the seventeenth century, and superior to most College halls. 

During the Civil Wars, the Cholmondleys of Vale Royal were very active 
in support of the Royal cause, and consequently suffered severely. A de- 
tachment from General Lambert's army, then engaged in besieging Beeston 
Castle, plundered their residence, and after stripping it of every valuable 
article of decoration or furniture^ burnt one of the wings, which appeared to 
have been the refectory of the Abbey, from the marks on the bare walls, which 
were standing till within these few years. With this event, tradition has 
connected the singular tale of the household being for some time solely sup- 



VALE ROYAL. 39 

ported by the milk of a white cow, which had found means to escape from 
the soldiers, who had seized and were conveying her to their camp with 
the other cattle. Whatever might be the truth, it is certain that her pos- 
terity has been preserved from feelings of gratitude, and white cows with 
red ears, of the very same breed, are still kept at Vale Royal. 

The apartments of the present mansion exhibit a great number 
of family and other portraits; some of them of distinguished merit: 
Among the latter are Charles the First and James the Second, by 
Sir Peter Lely ; the Great Duke of Somerset, by Reubens ; the Earl 
of Londonderry, and his sister Mrs. Cholmondeley; Governor Pitt; 
Sir Lionel and Lady Tollemache ; Lady Salisbury, his mother; 
and the last Sir Hugh Cholmondeley ; the latter is a full-length in 
green armour, painted on board, and placed at the end of the gallery 
called Sir Hugh's. Here also is a very curious painting on wood of 
Charles the First putting on his cap previous to his decollation : this was 
executed by Deniers, 16'49. Another painting represents Mr. John Tho- 
masine, the celebrated writing-master of Tarvin ; many specimens of 
whose beautiful penmanship are preserved here : he lived in the family. 
The library is very large and valuable : among its most choice rarities are 
writings called " The Prophecies of Nixon " the famous Cheshire Prophet : 
these are preserved with the greatest care, no stranger being permitted to 
see them. 

A few words referring to this extraordinary man — "The Prophet" 
Nixon — will not inappropriately terminate this sketch of the residence 
of his patrons. 

In a pamphlet published at Chester, purporting to contain his original 
predictions, it is said that he was born at a farm called Bridge House, in 
the parish of Over, near New Church, and not far from Vale Royal, in 
the year 1467; but in the account of his life, written by John Oldmixon, 
Esq., he is affirmed to have lived in the reign of James the First. The 
latter assertion is most consonant to the general history with which tradi- 
tion has accompanied the narration of his prophecies ; but if actually true, 
it destroys the validity of various prophetical speeches that have been 
attributed to him, and, by a natural consequence, throws a shade of con- 
siderable doubt over the whole ; yet whatever opinion may be entertained 
by many on this subject, it is certain that numbers of the inhabitants of 
Cheshire have given the most unlimited credit to the predictions of their 
oracular countryman. His infancy and boyhood are reported to have been 
only remarkable for expressing a heavy and sluggish apprehension, which 
bordered on stupidity. So feeble, indeed, was his intellect, that even 
the most common employments of husbandry could not be taught him 



40 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

without considerable fatigue. As his years increased he became distin- 
guished for stubbornness of disposition and sullen taciturnity. His man- 
ners were rude and clownish, his appetite voracious, his figure unpleasing, 
and his voice harsh; though the latter defect was not often perceived, 
the cacoethes loquendi seldom influencing his conversation to a greater 
extent than yes and no. 

Trained to the lowest occupations of rustic labour, he never soared to 
a higher situation than that of a rustic ploughman : here his attain- 
ments centered ; and with any other subject, excepting at the times when 
inspiration is said to have guided him, he was as little acquainted as the 
clod he was employed to cultivate. On these occasions, tradition affirms 
that he spoke with more than customary intelligence ; but as soon as the 
unknown power that propelled him to discourse had ceased to operate, he 
elapsed into mental imbecility, and driveling idiotism. Previous to the 
utterance of his prophecies, he generally fell into a trance ; and whatever 
means were employed to awaken his dormant energies^ he remained fixed 
and insensible, till the bodily paroxysm had abated, of the nature, or even 
of the presence, of which he appears to have had no acquaintance. 

Some mystical expressions, which he uttered on recovering from one of 
the fits, and of which the whole neighbourhood rang with fulfilment, oc- 
casioned him to be noticed by Thomas Cholmondeley, Esq., of Vale 
Royal. This gentleman had taken him into his house,' and intended 
to have had him educated ; but his ignorance proved too powerful for the 
arts of tuition to remove, and he was suffered to pursue the occupation of 
guiding oxen to the plough, to which his capacity seemed only adapted. 

While in this family, he is said to have predicted many things that were 
soon afterwards actually fulfilled ; and others that were not to be accom- 
plished till after the expiration of many years : among the latter events 
were the civil wars, the death of Charles the First, the Restoration, and 
the Revolution. 

In the lives of Nixon above alluded to, are various detached particulars 
connected with the literal fulfilments of several of his prophecies, and par- 
ticularly of those which more immediately related to the Cholmondeley 
family. To those we can only refer, as they involve too many circum- 
stances to be introduced into the present sketch, and might also be mis- 
understood, unless we had sufficient space to enter into an extended ex- 
amination of the different relations. The fame attendant on his supposed 
prescience, was the cause of his being sent for to the Court of James the 
First, who wished to converse with the man that possessed such extraordi- 
nary powers. Nixon was unwilling to attend, declaring that his reason for 
reluctance was, the certainty of being starved, should he be obliged to 



BASING, HANTS. 4 L 

comply with the Monarch's command. The plea seemed founded on an 
event too improbable to be credited, and he was forced to visit the palace, 
where the King assigned him a station in the kitchen, that he might no 
longer be in fear of perishing with hunger. This, however, is said to have 
really happened ; for the King having departed suddenly for Hampton 
Court, at a time when Nixon, for some mischievous prank, was locked up 
in a closet, he was entirely forgotten for three days, at the expiration of 
which he was found lifeless, being literally starved to death. 

f3asmg, ?^ant$. 

Bolinbroke : What ! will not this Castle yield ? 
Percy : The Castle royally is manu'd 
Against the entrance. 

Shakespeare. 

Our great civil war of the seventeenth century — the hard-fought contest 
of the Cavaliers and Roundheads — exhibits in a marked degree the supe- 
riority of the English character over that of other European nations. 
The conflict was boldly waged on the battle-field : the nobles rallying 
round the throne, fought with a devotion that set at nought all considera- 
tions of personal advantage, and with a gallantry that recalled the early 
ages of chivalry. The " rebel Commons," deserve, too, their meed of 
praise : they drew the sword in vindication of what they deemed the 
liberties of their country, and they sheathed it not, until they had placed 
those liberties on a firm constitutional basis. Yet, in all the rancour en- 
gendered by these animosities, and amid all the ill-feeling that civil war 
never fails to call forth, no deed of premeditated vengeance — no blood spilt 
on the scaffold when the battle strife was hushed, sullied the fair fame of 
either party. Englishmen, be their political opinions what they may, 
recall those stirring times with a sensation of national pride and pleasure. 
The active loyalty of a Langdale, a Falkland, a Granville, and a Pawlet, 
and the stern patriotism of a Hampden, a Cromwell, a Waller, or a Fair- 
fax, are alike applauded, and alike combine to render the pages of our 
history, which narrate their achievements, a highly honorable episode in 
the world's annals. Weak, indeed, must be the nationality of an English 
reader, who can peruse the record without experiencing a sentiment of 
honest exultation at the spirit and energy that pervaded the whole war. 

Instances of the most brilliant as well as the most desperate examples 
of bravery, both in public and private encounters occurred during the pro- 
gress of the struggle : the nerve of England was strained to the utmost, 
and mighty, indeed, were its efforts. The great battles— the two New- 
burys, Marston Moor, Edge Hill, and Rowton Heath, require but to be 



42 TUi: LAMBS OF ENGLAND. 

named : their details are familiar to all. The minor contests, how- 
ever — contests of equal, though more circumscribed, daring — have a 
peculiar and perhaps a more attractive interest. History is seldom so 
amusing as when, descending from the lofty regions of general description, 
it dwells for a moment on some ancient place or renowned individual, ex- 
cluding as it were the world's vast prospect, and limiting our sight to the 
less extensive, but more clearly defined view of some favored spot. These 
few cursory remarks on the days of English loyalty and English revolt, 
have been suggested by the subject before us — the old fortress of Basing, 
one of the most determined in its resistance to the Parliamentary 
forces. 

Basing is a considerable village in Hampshire, about two miles north- 
east from Basingstoke. The name is Saxon, and signifies a coat of mail ; 
to which it is said the place once bore some resemblance, referring perhaps 
to its military strength. That it was, previously to the Conquest, a place of 
more importance than Basingstoke, there is no reason to doubt, from the 
Saxon addition of stoke (or hamlet) added to the latter. Basing's first 
military glory dates from the memorable battle fought between the Danes 
and the Saxons, commanded by King Ethelred and his brother Alfred, in 
the year 87 1, in which the latter were defeated. It became still more 
famous, however, for the gallant stand made against the forces of the 
Parliament, in the reign of Charles the First, by John Pawlet, Marquis of 
Winchester, a lineal descendant of Hugh de Port,* Lord of Basing, who, 
at the period of the Doomsday Survey, held fifty-five lordships in Hamp- 
shire. Basing, the head of these extensive possessions, appears to have 
been very early the site of a castle, as mention of the land of the old castle 
of Basing occurs in a grant made by John de Port to the neighbouring 
priory of Monk's Sherborne, in the reign of Henry the Second. William, 
his grandson, assumed the name of St. John ; and Robert, Lord St. John, 
in the forty-third of Henry the Third, obtained a license to fix a pole 
upon the bann of his moat at Basing, and also permission to continue it 
so fortified during the King's pleasure. In the time of Richard the 
Second, Basing, with other estates of this family, was transferred by 
marriage to the Poynings ; and again, in the time of Henry the Sixth, 
to the Pawlets, by the marriage of Constance, heiress of the former, with 
Sir John Pawlet, of Nunny Castle, in Somersetshire. 

Sir William Pawlet, Knt., third in descent from this alliance, created 

* It appears that Hugh dc Port, Lord of Basing, hold at least two manors, Cerdc- 
ford and Eschetune, by inheritance from his ancestors, before the Conquest; he 
took the habit of a monk at Winchester. His son, Henry de Port, Lord of Basing, 
was buried at Cerusie in Normandy. 



BASING, HANTS. 48 

Baron St. John, of Basing, by Henry the Eighth, and Earl of Wiltshire 
and Marquis of Winchester by Edward the Sixth, was a very polished 
nobleman, and greatly in favor at court through most of the successive 
changes that occurred in the reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the 
Sixth, Mary, and Elizabeth. He held the office of treasurer nearly 
thirty years.* Being asked how he contrived to maintain his situa- 
tion in such perilous times, wherein so many great changes had taken 
place in church and state, he answered, " By being a willow, and 
not an oak." He rebuilt the castle at Basing in a magnificent and even 
princely style ; so much so, indeed, that Camden, in allusion to the vast 
expense of living entailed on his family by its splendour, observes, that 
" it was so overpowered by its own weight, that his posterity have been 
forced to pull down a part of it." 

Here King Edward the Sixth honoured the Marquis of Win- 
chester with his presence, for four days. King Philip and Queen 
Mary, whom the Marquis had accompanied to Winchester after their 
marriage, were also entertained at Basing for five days. Here, also, 
in the year 156'0, his lordship received Queen Elizabeth with " all good 
cheer," and so much to her satisfaction, that she playfully lamented his 
great age ; " for, by my troth," said the delighted sovereign, " if my 
lord treasurer were but a young man, I could find in my heart to have 
him for a husband before any man in England." The Marquess died 
in 1 572, at the age of 97, having lived to see 1 03 of his own immediate 
descendants: he was buried in Basing church. 

William, his great grandson, and fourth Marquis of Winchester, had 
likewise, in the year 1601, the honor of having Queen Elizabeth for a 
guest, and that for a period of " thirteen days, to the greate charge of 
the savde Lorde Marquesse." During her Majesty's sojourn, the Duke of 
Biron, accompanied by about twenty of the French nobility, and a retinue 
of nearly four hundred persons, were lodged at the Vine, the seat of 
Lord Sandys, which house had been purposely furnished with hangings 
and plate from the Tower and Hampton Court, " and with seven score 
beds and furniture, which the willing and obedient people of the coun- 
trie of Southampton, upon two dayes' warning, had brought in thither to 
lend the Queene." When Elizabeth departed from Basing, she affirmed 
that " she had done that in Hampshire that none of her ancestors ever 
did, neither that any Prince in Christendome could doe : that was, she 
had in her progresses, at her subjects' houses, entertained a royal ambas- 

* He is said to have left a manuscript account of his life; and also gave a particular 
detail of the siege of Boulogne, where ho was one of the principal commanders. 



44 Tiir lands or England. 

sador, and had royally entertained him." This Marquis died in 1628, at 
Hawkwood, now Hack wood, the present seat of his descendants. 

John, his son, the fifth Marquis of Winchester, was the brave noble- 
man who rendered his name illustrious by his gallant defence of Basing 
House, in the cause of Charles the First, during a tedious siege and 
blockade, or rather a succession of them, with short intermissions, con- 
tinued upwards of two years. 

The noble mansion of Basing was built upon a rising ground, and 
was surrounded with a brick rampart, which was lined with earth, and 
all encompassed with a dry ditch. Basing House is not to be confounded 
with the castle ; to the east of which it is situated at a small distance, 
some remains of the foundations still existing. 

In the beginning of the Civil Wars, this garrison much distressed the 
Parliamentarians by the command it had of the western road, insomuch 
that it was several times besieged by their forces under Colonel Norton, 
Colonel Morley, and Sir William Waller, who greatly distressed, but 
could not take it. The Marquis declared, that " if the King had no 
more ground in England than Basing House, he would hold it out to 
the extremity." At first there were none but the Marquis's own family, 
and one hundred musqueteers from Oxford, but afterwards the King sup- 
plied him as occasion required. To inspire the garrison with courage, and 
perseverance in the resolute contest, he wrote with a diamond in every 
window i( Love Loyalty ;" for which reason the house was called Loyalty 
House, and the words in French, Ahnez Loyaulte, afterwards became the 
motto of the family arms, as they are to the present day. 

The investment commenced in August, 1643 : the first material assaults 
were made by Sir William Waller, (called from his former successes, 
William the Conqueror,) who thrice, within nine days, attempted to take 
it by storm, with 7000 men, but was repulsed, and obliged to retreat with 
great loss to Farnham. 

The final investment of Basing House appears to have been undertaken by 
Cromwell. When the king's cause declined everywhere, Oliver, coming 
with his victorious troops out of the west, attacked Basing House, and 
so vigorously pushed on the siege, that the Royalists saw it impossible for 
them to hold out as they had formerly done, and thereupon desired a parley; 
but the General was resolved to chastise them for their obstinate loyalty, 
and would hearken to no proposals, intending to take it by storm. Having 
therefore posted his army around the house, the attack was begun, and 
Sir Hardress Waller's and Colonel Montague's regiments having forced the 
works of the besieged, mounted the walls and entered the house before 
the defendants perceived their danger. Thus Basing House, which had 



KASING, HANTS. 45 

held out so long, and had been thought almost impregnable, was at length 
taken by storm, Oct. 14th, \6l5, and burnt to the ground. Seventy-two 
men were lost on the king's side, and about 200 (another account says 
400) taken prisoners, among whom was the Marquis himself, and several 
other persons of distinction, whom Cromwell sent up to Parliament. 
Oliver's letter, still preserved in the British Museum, thus narrates the 
siege : — 

" I thank God I can give you a good account of Basing. After our batteries, 
we settled the several posts for the storm ; Colonel Dalbert was to be on the 
north side of the house, near the Grange, Colonel Pickering on his left hand, 
and Sir Hardress Wallers and Colonel Montague's regiments next him. We 
stormed in the morning at six o'clock. The signal of falling on was the firing 
of four of our cannon, which being done, our men fell on with great resolution 
and cheerfulness ; we took the two houses without any considerable loss to 
ourselves. Colonel Pickering stormed the new house, passed through, and got 
to the gate of the old house, whereupon they summoned a parley, which our 
men would not hear. In the meantime, Colonel Montague's and Sir Hardress 
Waller's regiments assaulted the strongest work, where the enemy kept his court 
of guard, which, with great resolution, they recovered, beating the enemy from 
a double culverine, and from that work ; which, having done, they drew their 
ladders after them, and got over another work, and the house wall, before they 
could enter. In this Sir Hardress Waller, performing his duty with honour and 
diligence, was shot in the arm, but not dangerous. We have little loss ; many 
of the enemy our men put to the sword, and some officers of quality : most of 
the rest we have prisoners, amongst which, the Marquis and Sir Robert Peake, 
and divers other officers, whom I have ordered to be sent up to you. We have 
taken about ten pieces of ordnance, and much ammunition, to your soldiers a 
good encouragement. I humbly offer to you to have this place utterly slighted, 
for these following reasons ; it will take about eight hundred men to ma:;age 
it ; it is not frontier ; the country is open about it ; the place exceedingly 
ruined by your batteries and mortar-pieces, and a fire which fell upon the 
place since our taking it. If you please to take the garrison at Farnham, some 
out of Chichester, and a good part of the foot which were here under Dalbert, 
make a strong quarter at Newberry, with three or four troops of ho: se, I dare 
be confident, it would not only be a curb to Dennington, but a security and a 
frontier to these parts, inasmuch as Newberry lies upon the river, and will 
prevent any incursion from Dennington, Wallingford, or Farringdon, into these 
parts, and by lying there will make the trade more secure between Bristol and 
London, for all carriages : and I believe the gentlemen of Wiltshire and Hamp- 
shire will, with more cheerfulness, contribute to maintain a garrison upon a 
frontier than in their own bowels, which will have less safety in it. Sir, I hope 
not to delay, but march towards the West to-morrow, and be as diligent as I 
may in my expedition thither. I must speak my judgement to you, that if you 
intend to have your work carried on, recruits of foot must be had, and a course. 



46 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

taken to pay your army, else, believe me, Sir, it will not be able to answer the 
work you have for it to do. I entreated Colonel Hammond to wait upon you, 
who was taken by a mistake whilst we lay before this garrison, which God 
safely delivered to us, to our great joy, but to his loss of almost all he had, 
which the enemy took from him. The Lord grant that these mercies may be 
acknowledged with all thankfulness. God exceedingly abounds in his goodness 
towards us, and will not be weary nntil righteousness and peace meet ; and that 
he hath brought forth a glorious work for the happiness of this poor kingdom, 
wherein desires to serve God and you with a faithful hand, 

Your most humble servant, 

Oliver Cromwell." 

The number of soldiers slain before the walls, from the commencement 
of the siege, is recorded to have been upwards of, 2000. The plunder 
obtained on this occasion amounted to 200,000/. in cash, jewels, and 
furniture, among which was a bed worth 1,400/. A private soldier is 
said to have received 300/. as his share of the booty. Among the dis- 
tinguished persons taken prisoner was Sir Robert Peake, who com- 
manded the garrison under the Marquis. Lieut -Col. Wilburn, and Ser- 
jeant-Major Cufaude, of the Loyalists, tradition narrates, were slain in cold 
blood. Dr. Thomas Johnson, the celebrated botanist, being with the royal 
army, received a wound of which he died. Six Catholic priests (the Mar- 
quis being a Catholic) were also among the slain. Robinson, a stage- 
player, was killed by Major- Gen. Harrison, who is said to have refused 
him quarter and shot him in the head when he had laid down his arms. 
Hollar, the celebrated engraver, who was there at the time, made his 
escape. Dr. Thomas Fuller, author of the " Church History of Bri- 
tain," and other works, being a chaplain in the royal army under Lord 
Hopton, was for some time shut up in Basing House while it was besieged. 
Even here, as if sitting in the study of a quiet parsonage far removed 
from the din of war, he prosecuted his favourite work, entitled " The 
Worthies of England ;" discovering no sign of fear, but only complain- 
ing that the noise of the cannon, which was continually thundering from 
the lines of the besiegers, interrupted him in digesting his notes. Dr. Fuller, 
however, animated the garrison to so vigorous a defence, that Sir William 
Waller was obliged to raise the siege with considerable loss, by which the 
fate of Basing House was for a considerable while suspended. When it was 
besieged a second time and fell, Lord Hopton's army took shelter in the 
city of Exeter, whither Fuller accompanied it. 

Hugh Peters was at the taking of Basing House, and being come to 
London to make a report of it to the Parliament, said it was a house fit for 



BASING, HANTS. 47 

an emperor to dwell in, it was so spacious and beautiful. The Marchioness 
of Winchester, second wife of the Marquis, was distinguished for courage 
and prudence, like the celebrated Blanche, Lady Arundel, who so nobly- 
held Wardour Castle. The Marchioness valiantly aided in the de- 
fence of Basing House, which was taken during her absence. She wrote 
a journal of the proceedings relative to the siege.* 

After the original house was destroyed, a mansion was built on the 
north side of the road opposite the ruins. This house was pulled down 
about fifty or sixty years ago, and the materials carried to Cannons near 
Kingsclere. 

The brave Marquis, whose property was thus reduced to ruins in the 
cause of his sovereign, lived to the Restoration, but received no recompense 
from an ungrateful court for his immense losses. His loyalty was the more 
remarkable as coming from a Catholic subject to a Protestant King. During 
the latter part of his life he resided at Englefield, in Berkshire, where he 
built a noble mansion, the front of which resembled the face of a church 
organ. Dying in 1674, he was buried in the parish church; the epitaph 
on his monument was written by Dry den : — 

" He, who in impious times undaunted stood, 
And midst rebellion durst be just and good ; 
Whose arms asserted, and whose sufferings more 
Confirm 1 d the cause for which he fought before, 
Rests here ; rewarded by a heav'nly Prince 
For what his earthly could not recompense. 
Pray, reader, that such times no more appear ; 
Or if they happen, learn true honour here. 
Ark of this age's faith and loyalty, 
Which, to preserve them, Heav'n confln'd in thee, 
Few subjects could a King like thine deserve ; 
And fewer such a King so well could serve. 
Blest King, blest subjects, whose exalted state 
By suffering rose, and gave the law to fate ! 
Such souls are rare ; but mighty patterns given 
To earth, and meant for ornaments to Heaven." 

The Marquis translated from the French the " Gallery of Heroic 
Women," 1652 ; and Talon's " Holy History,'' 1653. 

The first wife of the Marquis was Jane, the accomplished daugh- 
ter of Thomas Viscount Savage : she was taught Spanish by James Howell, 
Esq., who addressed a very curious letter to her Grace. (See his Familiar 

* The Journal of the siege of Basing House, printed at Oxford in 1645, is con- 
sidered as one of the most eventful pieces of history during the civil war. 



48 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Letters, vol. ].). She was mother of Charles, first Duke of Bolton, but 
died in the delivery of her second child, in the 24th year of her age. An 
epitaph to her memory was written by Milton. There was a Cambridge 
collection of verses on her death, among which Milton's lines appeared, 
being written while he was a student at Christ's College. Ben Jonson 
wrote an Elegy on the Lady Anne Pawlett, Marchioness of Winton. She 
was sister to the Earl of Essex, and to the Marchioness of Hertford. 

Her son Charles Paulett, sixth Marquess of Winchester, was ele- 
vated to a dukedom, 9th April, 1689, as Duke of Bolton. His grace m. 
1st Christian, eldest daughter and co-heiress of John Frecheville, of 
Stavely, afterwards created Lord Frecheville, by whom he had no surviv- 
ing issue; and 2ndly, Mary, eldest illegitimate daughter of Emanuel 
Scroop, Earl of Sunderland, and widow of the Hon. Henry Carey, and by 
that lady had two sons and three daughters — Charles, his heir; William, 
who m. twice, and left issue by both marriages ; Jane, m. to John, Earl of 
Bridgewater ; Mary, d. unm. ; and Elizabeth, m. to Toby Jenkins, Esq. 
Of this duke, Burnet says, " This year (16'99) died the Marquess of Win- 
chester, whom the king had created Duke of Bolton. He was a man of a 
strange mixture. He had the spleen to a high degree, and affected an 
extravagant behaviour ; for many weeks he would not open his mouth till 
such an hour of the day when he thought the air was pure. He changed 
the day into night, and often hunted by torchlight, and took all sorts of 
liberties to himself, many of which were very disagreeable to those about 
him. He was a man of profuse expense, and of a most ravenous avarice 
to support that ; and though he was much hated, yet he carried matters 
before him with such authority and success, that he was in all respects the 
great riddle of the age." His grace was s. by his eldest son, Charles, 
2d Duke of Bolton, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1?17, who was father 
of Charles, 3d Duke of Bolton, K.G., constable of the Tower of London, 
and Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets. His grace m. 1st, Anne, 
daughter and sole heiress of John Vaughan, Earl of Carberry, which lady 
died childless ; and 2ndly, Miss Lavinia Bestwick, well known as an 
actress in the character of Polly Peachum, by whom he had no legitimate 
issue, but had three sons prior to the decease of the first duchess. He d. 
25th Aug. 1754, when the honors devolved upon his brother, Harry, fourth 
Duke of Bolton, whose son Charles, fifth Duke, Lieutenant of the Tower 
of London, and Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, had an illegitimate 
daughter, Mary Jean Paulett, who eventually succeeded by entail to the 
greater part of his Grace's extensive estates, and married Thomas Orde, 
Esq., afterwards Baron Bolton. 



HOLLAND HOUSE, MIDDLESEX. 49 



f&oUan* tousle, fHttrtrttScv. 

" Here Rogers sat — and here for ever dwell 
With me, those pleasures that he sang so well."* 

Abbots Kensington, of which Holland House is the Manorial 
residence, appears in Domesday Book as " Chrenistun," and in other 
ancient records is styled " Kenesitune." After passing through the 
illustrious family of De Vere, it came into the hands of William,, Marquess 
of Berkeley, who gave it to Sir Reginald Bray : subsequently, it fell to 
Sir Walter Cope, Knt., and was conveyed, in marriage, by that gentle- 
man's only daughter and heiress, Isabel, to Sir Henry Rich, K.B., Captain 
of the King's Guard, who, not long after, being raised to the peerage, 
assumed his title of nobility from his wife's inheritance. From this 
period, Holland House, the cherished home of men "writ in the 
annals of their country's fame," has held a foremost place among our 
English mansions. Its situation, close to the metropolis ; its attractive 
style of architecture affording a correct idea of the baronial mansion of 
the reign of James I. ; and, above all, the historical and literary asso- 
ciations which hang around its venerable walls, combine to invest this 
splendid abode with no common claims to public favour. London, with 
its smoke, its din, and its busy hum of men, is scarcely two miles distant, 
and yet Holland House has its green meadows, its sloping lawns, and its 
refreshing woods. Here still sings the nightingale ; here is the pleasant 
shade ; and here may yet be seen the gables and chimneys of the good old 
times of the Stuarts. An eloquent contemporary thus deplores the possi- 
bility of a change coming over so classic a spot, and graphically refers to 
the glories of this stately pile : — 

" Yet a few years, and these shades and structures may follow their illustrious 
masters. The wonderful city which, ancient and gigantic as it is, still continues 
to grow as a young town of logwood by a water privilege in Michigan, may soon 
displace these turrets and gardens, which are associated with so much that is 
interesting and noble ; with the courtly magnificence of Rich ; with the loves 
of Ormond ; with the counsels of Cromwell ; with the death of Addison. The 
time is coming when perhaps a few old men, the last survivors of our generation, 
will in vain seek, amid new streets, and squares, and railway stations, for the 
site of that dwelling, which in their youth was the favourite resort of wits and 

* These lines were inscribed by the late Lord Holland in an alcove in the quaint 
old garden of Holland House, where the Bard of Memory was accustomed to sit. 

E 



50 Till: LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

beauties, of painters and poets, of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen ; they 
will then remember with strange tenderness many objects familiar to them — 
the avenue and terrace, the busts and the paintings, and the carving, the gro- 
tesque gilding, and the enigmatical mottoes. With peculiar tenderness they 
will recall that venerable chamber, in which all the antique gravity of a college 
library was so singularly blended with all that female grace and wit could devise 
to embellish a drawing-room. They will recollect, not unmoved, those shelves 
loaded with the varied learning of many lands and many ages ; those portraits, 
in which were preserved the features of the best and wisest Englishmen for two 
generations : they will recollect how many men, who have guided the politics of 
Europe, who have moved great assemblies by reason and eloquence, who 
have put life into bronze or canvas, or who left to posterity things so 
written that it will not willingly let them die, were there mixed with all 
that is loveliest and gayest in the society of the most splendid of 
capitals. They will remember the singular character, which belonged to that 
circle, in which every talent and accomplishment, every art and science, had its 
place. They will remember how the last debate was discussed in one corner, 
and the last comedy of Scribe in another ; while Wilkie gazed with modest ad- 
miration on Reynolds' Baretti ; while Mackintosh turned over Thomas Aquinas 
to verify a quotation ; while Talleyrand related his conversations with Barras at 
the Luxembourg, or his ride with Lannes over the field of Austerlitz. They 
will remember above all, the grace, and the kindness far more admirable than 
grace, with which the princely hospitality of that ancient mansion was dis- 
pensed ; they will remember that temper, which years of sickness, of lameness, 
of confinement, seemed only to make sweeter and sweeter ; and that frank po- 
liteness, which at once relieved all the embarrassment of the youngest and most 
timid writer or artist, who found himself for the first time among ambassadors 
and earls. They will remember that, in the last lines which he traced, he 
expressed his joy that he had done nothing unworthy of the friend of Fox and 
Grey ; and they will have reason to feel similar joy, if, in looking back on many 
troubled years, they cannot accuse themselves of having done anything unworthy 
of the men who were distinguished by the friendship of Lord Holland." 

But we must revert to the regular descent of the manor, and the his- 
tory of its successive possessors. Sir Henry Rich, Lord Kensington, the 
husband of the heiress of Cope, was a courtier, and had the honour 
of being employed to negotiate a marriage between Prince Charles and 
the Spanish Infanta. The negotiation proved abortive, but the services 
of Lord Kensington were well appreciated and rewarded, by an Earl's 
coronet and the Insignia of the Garter. The new title chosen by 
his Lordship was Holland, and thence the Manor House of Kensing- 
ton, built by the Earl's father-in-law, Sir Walter Cope, in 1607, 
received its present appellation. Thus esteemed by the gallant race 
that then filled the throne of England, the Earl of Holland repaid 



HOLLAND HOUSE, MIDDLESEX. 51 

the royal favour he enjoyed, by the most devoted zeal in the cause of 
King Charles. At last, when his Majesty became captive in the Isle 
of Wight, his Lordship took up arms, with other loyal persons, to effect 
his restoration, but miscarrying at Kingston-upon-Thames, 7th July, 
16*48, he was made prisoner and committed to the Tower, where he 
remained until after the execution of the King, when, being brought to 
trial, with the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Norwich, and Sir John 
Owen, he was condemned to death, and executed by decapitation, before 
the gates of Westminster Hall, 9th March, 16*49. His son, Robert 
Rich, second Earl of Holland, succeeded his cousin as fifth Earl of 
Warwick, and thus united the two coronets of his family. He was father 
of Edward Rich, Earl of Warwick and Holland, whose widow, Char- 
lotte, daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton of Chirk Castle, married in 
1716, the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, and thus, by linking 
with the associations of Kensington the memory of that illustrious man, 
has invested with a classic halo the groves and shades of Holland House. 
The noble alliance brought, however, little comfort to the poet's mind. 
<e The mansion," says Dr. Johnson, " although large, could not contain 
Mr. Addison, the Countess of Warwick, and one guest — Peace." The 
courtly pair lived on ill terms together, and it is not unlikely that Addi- 
son was first seduced to excess by the manumission which he obtained 
from the servile timidity of his sober hours. Of the union there was 
issue, an only child — a daughter — Charlotte Addison, who is stated to 
have been of weak intellect. She inherited her father's estate at Bilton, 
in Warwickshire, which she bequeathed to her maternal kinsman, the 
Hon. John Bridgman Simpson. 

The traditions regarding Addison, during his residence at Holland 
House, are very trifling. " They are simply,'' says Mr. Howitt, " that 
he used to walk, when composing his Spectators, in the Long Library, 
then a Picture Gallery, with a bottle of wine at each end, which he 
visited as he alternately arrived at them: and that the room in which 
he died, though not positively known, is supposed to be the present 
dining-room, being then the state bedroom. The young Earl of Warwick, 
to whom he there addressed the emphatic words — ' See in what peace 
a Christian can die ! ' died also himself in 1721, but two years afterwards." 

At the youthful earl's decease, the estate passed to his first-cousin, 
William Edwardes, Esq., (created a Peer of Ireland, as Baron Ken- 
sington), and was eventually sold to the Right Hon. Henry Fox, the 
distinguished politician of the time of George II., who, on being created 
a Peer, adopted the title of Holland. His second son, Charles James 
Fox, the still more illustrious statesman of the succeeding reign, passed 

E 2 



52 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

his early days in the venerable shades of Holland House ; and here lived 
his nephew, the late kind and accomplished Peer, whose literary tastes 
and literary friendships collected around him the most intellectual society 
of the age. 

" The general form of the mansion," we quote again from the " Homes 
and Haunts of the Poets/' w is that of a half H. The projection in the 
centre forming at once porch and tower, and the two wings, supported 
on pillars, give great decision of effect to it. The stone quoins worked 
with a sort of arabesque figure, remind one of the style of some portions 
of Heidelberg Castle, which is, what is called on the Continent, rococo. 
Here it is deemed Elizabethan ; but the plain buildings attached on each 
side to the main body of the house, with their shingled and steep-roofed 
towers, have a very picturesque and Bohemian look. Altogether it is a 
charming old pile, and the interior corresponds beautifully with the exte- 
rior. There is a fine entrance hall, a library behind it, and another 
library extending the whole length of one of the wings and the house 
up-stairs, one hundred and fifty feet in length. The drawing-room over 
the entrance hall, called the gilt-room, extends from front to back of 
the house, and commands views of the gardens both ways ; those to the 
back are very beautiful. 

In the house are, of course, many interesting and valuable works of art ; 
a great portion of them memorials of the distinguished men who have 
been accustomed to resort thither. In one room is a portrait of Charles 
James Fox, as a child, in a light blue dress, and with a close, reddish 
woollen cap on his head, under which shew lace edges. The artist 
is unknown, but is supposed to be French. The countenance is full 
of life and intelligence, and the child "in it, is most remarkably the 
father of the man." The likeness is wonderful. You can imagine how, 
by time and circumstance, that child's countenance expanded into what it 
became in maturity. There is also a portrait of Addison, which belonged 
to his daughter. It represents him as much younger than any others that 
I have seen. In the gilt room are busts of George IV. and William IV. 
On the staircase is a bust of Lord Holland, father of the second earl, and 
of Charles Fox, by Nollekens. This bust, which is full of power and 
expression, is said to have brought Nollekens into his great repute. The 
likeness to that of Charles Fox is very striking, By the same artist, there 
are also the busts of Charles Fox, the late Lord Holland, and the present 
peer. That of Frere, by Chantry, is very spirited. There are also here, 
portraits of Lord Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, and family portraits. 
There is also a large and very curious painting of a fair, by Callott, and an 
Italian print of it. 



WRESSLE, CO. YORK. 



In the library, down stairs, are portraits of Charles James Fox — a very 
fine one ; of the late Lord Holland, of Talleyrand, by Ary Scheffer, per- 
haps the best one in existence, and the only one which he said that he ever 
sate for ; of Sir Samuel Romilly ; Sir James Mackintosh ; Lord Erskine, 
by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; Tierney ; Francis Horner, by Raeburn, so like 
Sir Walter Scott by the same artist, that I at first supposed it to be him. 
Lord Macartney, by Phillips ; Frere by Shee ; Moore ; Lord Thanet ; 
Archibald Hamilton ; late Lord Darnley ; late Lord King, when young, 
by Hoppner ; and a very sweet fancy portrait of the present Lady Hol- 
land. We miss, however, from this haunt of genius, the portraits of 
Byron, Brougham, Crabbe, Blanco White, Hallam, Rogers, Lord Jeffrey, 
and others. 

In the left wing is placed the colossal model of the statue of Charles 
Fox, which stands in Bloomsbury Square. 

In the gardens are various memorials of distinguished men. Amongst 
several very handsome cedars, perhaps the most luxuriant is said to have 
been planted by Charles Fox. 

The fine avenue leading down from the house to the Kensington road, 
is remarkable for having often been the walking and talking place of Crom- 
well and General Lambert. Lambert then occupied Holland House, and 
Cromwell, who lived next door, when he came to converse with him on 
state affairs, had to speak very loud to him, because he was deaf. To avoid 
being overheard, they used to walk in this avenue. 



" Yet, though deserted and in ruin grey, 
The suns of morn upon thy relic stream, 
And evening yields thy wall her blushing ray, 
And Cynthia visits with her silver beam." 

This relic of feudal grandeur is situated about four miles north-west 
from Howden, on a gently rising ground, within two hundred yards of the 
east bank of the Derwent, and elevated above that river just as much as is 
sufficient to be secure from the inundations, which frequently cover the ad- 
joining marshes to a very considerable extent. The prospects which the 
towers of this once magnificent castle could command are wholy unpic- 
turesque, as the surrounding country, though mostly fertile, presents not 
the least variety of surface. 



54 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

It appears from the Doomsday Book that Gilbert Tyson had part of the 
manor of Wressle ; but from the time of that survey we find no mention 
of this place till the year 1315, the ninth of Edward II., when it is marked 
in the record called " Nomina Villarum" as one of the lordships of William 
de Percy. The time when the castle was built is not precisely ascertained ; 
but Leland ascribes its foundation to Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, in 
the time of Richard II., and Mr. Savage thinks that the era may be fixed 
to some part of the period between the years 1380 and 1390, when that 
nobleman, having grown into favour with the king, and obtained a con- 
siderable share in the direction of public affairs, might probably erect this 
monument of his greatness. This earl, with his nephew Henry Hotspur, 
son of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, rebelling against King Henry 
IV., was taken prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, A. D. 1403, and was 
beheaded the next day ; and in consequence of that event his estates be- 
came forfeited to the Crown. The king, after retaining Wressle some 
time in his own hands, gave it to his son John Duke of Bedford, who died 
possessed of it in the year 1434, the twelfth of Henry VI., and left it to 
that king, his nephew and heir. The inhabitants of Wressle have a cur- 
rent tradition, that all the men capable of bearing arms in that parish 
were with the Earl of Northumberland at the battle of Chevy Chace, 
where most of them were slain. Dr. Percy says that the first Earl of 
Northumberland fought the battle of Chevy Chace ; but the well known 
song of that name has been embellished with several circumstances relating 
to the battle of Otterburn. 

Thomas Percy, knight, son of Henry Percy second Earl of Northumber- 
land, was created baron Egremont on the 20th Nov. 1446; and in the 
year 1457 he obtained a grant of the castle and lordship of Wressle to 
hold during his life. It is probable that the next possessor was Nevil Lord 
Montague, brother of the famous Earl of Warwick, who being created Earl 
of Northumberland by King Edward IV., in the year 1463, had all the 
estates of the Percys granted to him. But in 1469 Edward revoked that 
grant, and restored Henry Percy, the fourth Earl of Northumberland, to 
the honours and estates of his ancestors. This castle and manor continued 
in the Percy family till the death of Josceline the eleventh Earl of Nor- 
thumberland, who dying May 21, 1670, without issue male, the title of 
Earl of Northumberland became extinct ; but the barony of Percy de- 
scended to his daughter the lady Elizabeth Percy, who in 1682 married 
Charles Seymour Duke of Somerset, and transmitted to that family a very 
rich inheritance, in which was included the lordship of Wressle. The 
Seymours continued lords of this place till the year 1750, when the Duke 
of Somerset dying, his estates were separated, those which came by the 



WRESSLE, CO. YORK. 55 

lady Percy being divided between Sir Hugh Smithson, baronet, who 
married the duke's daughter and succeeded to the title of Northumberland, 
and Sir Charles Windham, baronet, his grace's nephew, who succeeded to 
the title of Earl of Egremont. To this nobleman fell the Yorkshire estates 
of the Percys, among which were the lordship and castle of Wressle ; and 
his son, the present Earl of Egremont, is now the proprietor. 

Leland describes Wressle castle as built of very large squared stones, a 
great part of which was supposed to have been brought out of Erance. 
The whole building w T as a quadrangle with five tow-ers, one at each corner, 
and the fifth over the gateway. He says that it was moated round on three 
sides, but without any ditch on the fourth, by which was the entrance ; and 
he considers it as one of the most superb houses to the north of the Trent. 
It also appears that its noble possessors paid some attention to letters. For 
Leland in his Description says, " One thing I likid exceedingly : yn one of 
the Toures ther was a study called Paradise, wher was a closet in the 
middle of eight squares latisd aboute, and at the top of every square was 
a desk ledgid to set bookes on booke on cofers within them ; and this 
semid as joined hard to the toppe of the closette, and yet by pulling one or 
al wolde cum downe briste highte in rabbettes and serve for desks to lay 
bookes on. The garde robe yn the castelle was exceedingly fair. And so 
wer the gardens within the mote and the orchardes withowt. And in the 
orchardes were mountes ' Opere topiario' writhen aboute with degrees 
like turninges of cockle shells to cum to the top withowt payn. The river 
of Darwent rennith almost harde by the castelle and aboute a mile lower 
goith into the Owse. This ryver at greate raynes ragith and overflowith, 
much of the ground thereaboutes being lowe medowes. There is a park 
harde by the castelle." 

In this castle the Earls of Northumberland displayed a magnificence 
resembling, and scarcely inferior to, that of the royal court. Their house- 
hold was established on the same plan : their officers bore the same titles 
and their warrants ran in the same style. All the chief officers of the 
Earl of Northumberland's household, such as the comptrollers, clerk of the 
kitchen, chamberlain, treasurer, &c. were gentlemen both by birth and 
office; and the table at which they dined was called the Knights' board. 
The number of priests who were kept in this household were not fewer 
than eleven, at the head of whom was a doctor or bachelor of divinity ; 
and there was also a complete establishment of singers, choristers, &c. for 
the service of the chapel. The household book of the Percys exhibits a 
curious display of the magnificence of our ancient nobility ; and as the 
number of the Earl of Northumberland's servants, who were in ordinary 
waiting at his lordship's castles of Wressle and Leckonfield, shew the 



56 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

grandeur of the feudal times, we shall give the following list from Mr. 
Savage's extracts : 

" Gentlemen who wait before noon, six : yeomen and grooms of the chamber 
who wait before noon, ten : yeomen officers, four : groom officers, four : servants 
to wait in the great chamber in the morning from six till ten o'clock, twenty : 
gentlemen to wait in the afternoon, seven: yeoman of the chamber, yeomen 
waiters, and grooms of the chamber to wait in the afternoon, seven : yeomen 
officers of the household to wait in the afternoon, four : gentlemen to wait after 
supper, thirteen : yeomen of the chamber, yeomen waiters and groom officers 
and grooms of the chamber to wait after supper, seventeen : yeomen of the 
household and groom officers of the household, which shall not attend after 
supper, eight : chaplains and priests, eleven : gentlemen and children of the 
chapel attending daily at matins, lady mass, high mass, and evening song, seven- 
teen : yeomen officers, groom officers, and grooms in household, not appointed 
to attend because of their other business which they attend daily in their offices 
in the house, twenty-seven : an armourer : a groom of the chamber to the 
lord Percy to wait hourly in his chamber : a second groom for brushing 
and dressing his clothes : a groom of the chamber to his lordship's two young- 
est sons: a groom of the stirrup: a groom sumpter man to dress the sumpter 
norses and my lady's palfreys : a groom to dress the hobbys and nags : a groom 
to keep the hounds : a groom miller for grinding corn for baking and brewing : 
a groom porter for keeping the gates : a groom for driving his lordship's chariot : 
a keeper of the chariot horses : clerks of the household not appointed daily to 
attend because of making their books, which they are charged with to write 
upon hourly, seven : servants belonging to gentlemen in his lordship's house, ten : 
servants and gentlemen servants not appointed to wait because of their other 
business which they attend on daily for his lordship, forty-four : in all two 
hundred and twenty-nine." 

The civil war in the reign of Charles I. proved fatal to this magnificent 
castle. During that unfortunate contest it was garrisoned by the Parlia- 
mentarians ; and though the earl of Northumberland had espoused their 
cause with considerable activity, yet the losses which he sustained from 
his own party, were almost incredible. By an account taken at Michael- 
mas, 1646, it appeared that the damages done by the garrison to his lord- 
ship's buildings, woods, inclosures, &c, with the losses arising from the 
non-payment of his rents, in consequence of the contributions levied on 
his tenants, amounted to 42,554/. a sum more than equivalent to 200,000/. 
in the present century. And after all the zeal which the Earl of Northum- 
berland had shewn for their cause, an order was issued in 1650 for dis- 
mantling Wressle Castle, and rendering it untenable, by demolishing three 
sides of the quadrangle and throwing down all the battlements. It was 
also required that windows of eight feet in breadth and height, and only 



CARISBR00KE CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT. 57 

eight feet asunder should be broken out all round the remaining side, and 
that the demolition should take place before the 17th day of May. In 
consequence of these orders, three sides of the square which composed this 
castle were demolished : the south side alone, which contained some of 
the principal state rooms, was left standing to serve as a manor-house ; but 
even this part was, by throwing down the battlements, deprived of its 
former majestic appearance. 

It appears that after this demolition, Wressle castle was not long used 
as the mansion of its lords. It was occupied as a farm house till the year 
1796, when an accidental fire, which broke out on the 1 9th February, 
completed its destruction ; and the naked walls are now the only remains 
of this noble monument of feudal grandeur. 



Carfefcroofce Castle, forte of »tc$t. 

" Time, by his gradual touch, 
Has moulder'd into beauty many a tower, 
Which, when it frowned with all its battlements, 
Was only terrible." — Mason. 

Crowning the top of a hill, beneath which is a pretty rural village, 
and at the distance of a mile, or mile and half, from the little metropolis 
of the Isle of Wight, the ruins of Carisbrooke Castle allure the inquiring 
tourist. Nor is he disappointed of the object in his pilgrimage. So fair 
are these ruins, so important the events that they have witnessed, and so 
romantic and sad, that the Muses of Painting, History, and Tragedy might 
contend who should mark them for her own. 

The ground occupied by this castle is said to have been the site of a 
Roman camp ; and, in the shape of some of its mounds and trenches, anti- 
quarians profess still to trace the hand of the enslavers and civilizers of 
the ancient world. Having grown into a castle, it was in the year 530 
besieged and taken by Cerdic, the founder of the Saxon Kingdom of 
Wessex. On the Norman conquest, this castle, together with the lordship 
of the Isle of Wight, was granted to a kinsman of the Conqueror, William 
Fitz-Osborne, who had been the victor's marshal at the battle of Hastings. 
Everywhere it was the policy of the triumphant strangers to overawe the 
natives, by strengthening the old, and erecting new fortresses; and in 
the time of Fitz-Osborne, or his son Roger Earl of Hereford, this castle 
is supposed to have received considerable additions. Henceforward the 



58 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND 

seignory of the island, together with Carisbrooke, its chief seat, was held 
by a succession of powerful barons, to whom it passed, sometimes by pri- 
vate inheritance, sometimes by royal grant, till at length, through the favour 
of Henry VI., Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, was crowned King of 
the Isle of Wight, He, however, had no surviving issue ; and with him 
this little kingdom began and ended. 

From Edward IV. the brother of his Queen received a grant of this lord- 
ship, and, after the King's death, became one of the first victims to the re- 
lentless ambition of Richard Duke of Gloucester. Anthony Widvile, Earl 
of Rivers, stood in the same degree of relationship as Gloucester to the little 
King, Edward V., and, not being of a lineage which could give him pre- 
tensions to the crown for himself, he was the natural guardian of it for 
his nephew. As such he was feared by Gloucester ; and by the command 
of the paternal uncle, the maternal uncle of the helpless sovereign expired 
on the scaffold. 

Passing on to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we find the castle of 
Carisbrooke then in the possession of the crown, and receiving considerable 
additions. 

" The principal entrance," says Mr. Brannon, a native artist, in his 
accurately illustrated quarto called " Vectis Scenery," " is through an ivy- 
vested stone gateway, between the two western bastions, which by an in- 
scription over the arch (1598, E. R. 40) appears to have been erected in 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This leads to another of higher date and 
greater dimensions, guarded by two noble round towers, which yet* 

' A warlike mien, a sullen grandeur weir,' 

and opens to the bare court, or inner fortification. At the north east- 
angle, on an artificial mount, stands the keep, a multangular tower of untold 
antiquity." 

How little could Elizabeth, that proud and successful asserter of preroga- 
tive, have supposed that, in enlarging this castle, she was but strengthen- 
ing the prison of one of her imperial successors ! Yet such to Charles I. 
became the royal Castle of Carisbrooke. 

After the success of the Parliamentary forces, and after he had been de- 
livered into the power of the conquerors, through the treachery of the 
Scotch, the unhappy monarch escaped to Carisbrooke, confiding in the 
loyalty of Hammond, the governor; and thence, at a safe distance, 
hoping to negotiate with his enemies. He at first had no reason to be 
aggrieved at the personal treatment which he received ; as is evinced by the 
following letter addressed to Lord Lanerick, one of the three commissioners 
from Scotland, deputed to treat with the king. 



CAR1SBR00KE CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT. 50 

"Lanerick, — I wonder to hear (if that be true) that some of my 
friends should say, that my going to Jersey had much more furthered ray 
personal treaty than my coming hither ; for which, as I see no colour of 
reason, so I had not been here if I had thought that fancy true,, or had 
not been secured of a personal treaty, of which I neither do, nor I hope 
shall repent; for I am daily more and more satisfied with this governor.* 
and find these Islanders very good, peaceable, and quiet people. This en- 
couragement I have thought not unfit for you to receive, hoping at least 
it may do upon others, though needless to you, from 

Your most assured, real, faithful, constant friend, 

Carisbrooke, 23rd Nov. 1647. Charles R."* 

The chiefs of the army, however, had views and interests far different 
from those of either the King or Parliament. They removed his friends 
from the garrison, and directed that he himself should be treated as a pri- 
soner. During his confinement here, Charles more than once vainly at- 
tempted to escape. In the inner court, above the raised chamber, which 
was once the banqueting hall, is a mullioned window. There is a hole 
in the top and bottom of the stone centre of each compartment of this 
window, where an iron had been placed ; but it having been discovered 
that the captive king had nearly succeeded in squeezing his body through 
this narrow aperture, with the purpose of effecting his escape, the space 
was still further contracted by introducing two side bars instead of the 
central one. 

His situation at this period is thus described by Clarendon : 
" The King remained under strict and disconsolate imprisonment, no 
man being suffered to speak with him, and all diligence used to intercept 
all letters which might pass to or from him ; yet he found means some- 
times, by the affection and fidelity of some of the inhabitants of the island 
to receive important advertisements from his friends ; and to write and 
receive letters from the Queen, and looked upon it as a good omen, that 
in that desperate lowness of his fortune, and notwithstanding all the care 
that was taken that none should be about him but men of the most bar- 
barous and inhuman tempers and natures, void of all reverence towards 
God and man, his majesty's gracious disposition and generous affability 
still wrought upon some soldier, or other person placed about him, to un- 
dertake and perform some offices of trust in conveying papers to and from 
him."t 

* Burnet's Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, p. 326. 
f History of the Kebellion. 



60 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

While in this state of suffering, Charles poured out his soul to God in 
a prayer, which, though little known, is well authenticated. In the suc- 
ceeding reign it was published in the following form : — 

" Majesty in Misery, or an Imploration to the King op Kings. 

Written by his late Majesty King Charles the First, during his captivity at 
Carisbrooke Castle, Anno Dom. 1648. 

Great Monarch of the world, from whose power springs, 
The potency and power of kings, 
Record the royal woe my suffering sings ; 

And teach my tongue, that ever did confine, 

Its faculties in truth's seraphic line, 

To track the treasons of thy foes and mine. 

Nature and Law, by thy divine decree 
(The only root of righteous loyaltie), 
With this dim diadem invested me ; 

With it, the sacred sceptre, purple robe, 
The holy unction, and the royal globe ; 
Yet am I levell'd with the life of Job. 

The fiercest furies, that do daily tread, 
Upon my grief, my grey discrowned head, 
Are those that owe my bounty for their bread. 

They raise a war and christen it The Cause, 
Whilst sacrilegious hands have best applause, 
Plunder and murder are the kingdom's laws. 

Tyranny bears the title of Taxation ; 
Revenge and robbery are Reformation , 
Oppression gains the name of Sequestration. 

My loyal subjects, who in this bad season, 
Attend me by the Law of God and Reason, 
They dare impeach and punish for High Treason. 

Next at the clergy do their furies frown, 

Pious Episcopacy must go down, 

They will destroy the crosier and the crown. 



CAR1SBR00KE CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT. Gl 

Churchmen are chained, and schismatics are freed, 
Mechanicks preach, and holy fathers bleed, 
The crown is crucified with the Creed. 

The Church of England doth all faction foster, 
The pulpit is usurpt by each Impostor, 
Ex tempore excludes the Pater noster; 

The Presbyter and Independent seed, 

Springs with broad blades, to make religion bleed, 

Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed. 

The corner stone's misplaced by every paviur, 
With such a bloody method and behaviour, 
Their ancestor did crucifie our Saviour. 

My royal consort, from whose faithful womb, 
So many princes legally have come. 
Is forc'd in pilgrimage to seek a tomb. 

Great Britain's heir is forced into France, 
Whilst on his father's head his foes advance, 
Poor child ! he weeps out his inheritance. 

With my own power my Majesty they wound, 
In the king's name the king himself 's uncrowned, 
So doth the dust destroy the diamond. 

With propositions daily they enchant, 
My people's ears, such as do reason daunt, 
And the Almighty will not let me grant. 

They promised to erect my royal stem, 
To make me great, to advance my diadem, 
If I will first fall down and worship them. 

But for refusal they devour my thrones, 
Distress my children, and destroy my bones ; 
I fear they'll force me to make bread of stones. 

My life they prize at such a slender rate, 
That in my absence they draw bills of hate, 
To prove the king a traitor to the state. 

Felons obtain more privilege than I, 
They are allowed to answer ere they die — 
'Tis death for me to ask the reason, whv. 



G2 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

But, sacred Saviour, with thy words I woo 

Thee to forgive, and not be bitter to 

Such, as thou know'st do not know what they do. 

For since they from their Lord are so disjointed, 

As to contemn those edicts he appointed, 

How can they prize the power of his annointed ? 

Augment my patience, nullifie my hate, 
Preserve my issue, and inspire my mate, 
Yet though we perish, bless this church and state. 

Vota dubunt quce bella negarunt. 

After Charles I. had been beheaded, the castle was used as a prison for 
some of his children ; and here his daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, died 
at the age of fifteen. She was buried in the neighbouring church of 
Newport. 

Carisbrooke has no interesting recollections of a later period. It is time, 
therefore, to draw this slight sketch of its history to a close. 

The castle continues to be nominally the seat of the governor of the 
island ; a sinecure officer, whose emoluments have of late years very pro- 
perly been abolished. 

Within the walls of the castle are some buildings still habitable ; and 
here Lord Bolton, who was governor at the commencement of the nine- 
teenth century, spent much of his time; but he was the last governor who 
made Carisbrooke his abode. 

It might be negligent to conclude without stating that amongst the 
curiosities which the visitors of the castle are expected to admire, is a well 
of extraordinary depth and purity, said to have been dug by the Romans ; 
and that, from the keep, a distant glimpse may be obtained of the higher 
portion of the grounds of her Majesty's marine residence of Osborne 
House. 




cSjj| 






<'l 






BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 03 



33ranuJ|)tU, f^amp^uc. 

Few places afford such an unmixed treat to visitors and lovers of old 
halls as the fine old house of Bramshill. It is not the largest, nor the 
finest, nor the shewiest, nor the "best plenished of our ancient mansions ; 
but it is as it was, and as it was intended to he. It has no new wing 
built " in a modern style of convenience" in the middle of last century, 
nor has it any restorations (!) by Wyatt or his followers, nor improve- 
ments by Kent or Brown ; no ! there it stands, as it stood two hundred 
years ago ; a little more weather-dyed perhaps, but still the same ; and its 
wild and picturesque park, in all its main features, as it was half a century 
after it was reclaimed from the heath around it. This, then, is the great 
charm that Bramshill possesses for those who love to let their thoughts 
run back to former days, and converse in books, or meet in pictures, 
with the great-hearted and loyal men of olden time. We look here on 
the home, such as they dwelt in or visited ; we gaze on the woods 
and glades such as they loved to gaze upon or to wander in ; we pass 
through the rooms furnished as they used them. 

Bramshill — for let us draw near to it — is situate in the Parish of 
Eversley, in Hampshire, and almost on the borders of Berkshire. We will 
approach it from the Basingstoke side, over the plain called Hasely Heath ; 
and as the house stands nobly before us, or above us, on the crest of the 
opposite hill, let us look around at the wide expanse, and, though we love 
that heathy country, with its purple bloom in summer, or its clear brown 
tint in winter, yet we almost agree in old Fuller's words, when he tells 
us that " Bramsell was built in a bleak and barren place."* Yes ! there it 
stands, with its park, like a green and wooded island in the midst of the 
great heathy plain which occupies this part of the country — Hartford- 
bridge flats stretching away on one side, and this Hasely heath we are 
now crossing lying on the other side of it. But we have now entered 
the long straight avenue of old oaks that leads us in a direct arrow-like 
line up to the west front; and as we have opened quaint old Fuller's book, 
we must agree in the epithet he applies to the house, even more cordially 
than in those he bestows on the country round : for he calls it a " stately 
structure," and so it is : we feel that the quaint old man has just got the 
right word — it does seem a stately structure, as it looks down on us with 
its multitude of windows, its airy parapets, its clustered chimneys, and 

* Fuller's Worthies. 



64 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

its long front, so beautifully broken into light and shade by its projecting 
wings and richly ornamented centre. 

But we have now mounted the hill on which the house stands, and 
entering the court-yard in front of it between two multangular turrets, we 
will first, as we stand before the west front, consider a little of the his- 
tory of the place and mansion, and then wander round the house, and take a 
glance of the various, yet harmonious design of its different sides. 

Bramshill, then, was built by Edward, Lord Zouche, and was com- 
pleted about the year 1612, as the leaden water-spouts in the south 
front tell us, some of which bear that date upon them, and some his 
initials, E. Z. It is said that he built it as a palace for Henry, Prince 
of Wales, the eldest son of James the First; and some features of the 
building seem to confirm that tradition, as we shall presently see. 
The famous John Thorp, who was the architect of so many of our fine 
Elizabethan houses (as they are called), is thought to have furnished the 
designs to Lord Zouche for his mansion or palace. It is said, moreover, 
that Bramshill was never completed to the extent originally intended by 
Lord Zouche, or proposed by the architect, John Thorp. Fuller, whom 
I have so often quoted, and now call to my aid for the third and last 
time, preserves another very curious fact about Bramshill House; namely, 
that its extent originally was greater than it now is, but that part of it 
was destroyed by an accidental fire. So I understand him, but here are 
his words : " Next Basing," he says, " Bramsell, built by the last Lord 
Zouche, in a bleak and barren place, was a stately structure, especially 
before part thereof was defaced with a casual fire."* I am unwilling to 
doubt the tradition which assigns to Bramsell a more extensive plan 
than was ever executed ; least of all can I bring myself to call in question 
truthful Fuller's statement of a fact apparently within his own know- 
ledge ; but it really will puzzle us to devise, as we walk round the house, 
where Lord Zouche or John Thorp meant to extend the building, or 
where any part did exist which has been defaced, and has disappeared by 
the ' casual fire." Here is the house as it stands, in shape like two T's, or 
a double T, if one of those letters stood upon its head and supported its 

fellow on its foot, as I have seen some posture-masters do, thus, "[" This 

is a rough way of explaining the outline of the plan of the house : and it 
seems such a complete plan, and the aspect of the house itself seems so 
perfect and so finished, that, as I said, we can scarcely imagine what more 
was to be add 3d, or what was added and has vanished. It may be that 
Lord Zouche or his architect intended to form a quadrangle or quad- 

* Fuller's Worthies, i. 401. 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 65 

rangles to his house, as we see at Burleigh, and elsewhere ; but still the 
difficulty meets us, where was such a quadrangle to stand ? Not before 
the beautiful west front, nor on the terrace front. The supposition would 
be absurd, and the nature of the ground, rapidly falling away on both 
those sides, forbids our entertaining it. The stable-yard front certainly 
looks the most unconnected and unfinished, and, at first sight, we may be 
inclined to think that there, probably, the designer intended to build 
other sides, and to form a quadrangle ; but such an arrangement would 
have utterly destroyed the proportions of the beautiful west front. For if 
the building had been continued in line with the present west front, to 
form a side of a quadrangle to the stable yard front, the ornamented 
stone porch, which was evidently intended to be the feature of this front, 
and, indeed, of the whole house, would not have been in the centre of the 
west front. Altogether, then, I incline to the belief that, if a more ex- 
tended edifice was contemplated, or if part of the building has disap- 
peared, such addition must have been beyond the east front, that in 
which Lord Zouche's statue stands, and that possibly that front may have 
formed, or been intended to form a side only of a quadrangle. And yet, 
let us look round the house as we will, we do not feel the want of these 
proposed or additional buildings ; nay, we should be sorry if they existed ; 
for the house seems, as it stands, just what it ought to be, and we cannot 
help thinking that we should lose in compactness and symmetry by the 
addition of a single stone. 

And now to return from a long digression, which you will say has been 
as inconclusive as such theories usually are, let us think again of Lord 
Zouche and his building. Whether it was that the death (so exceedingly 
lamented by the whole nation) of Prince Henry, which took place at the 
end of the year 1612, while Bramshill was building, deterred Lord Zouche 
from proceeding further with his intended structure, or whether the "casual 
fire" reduced it to its present dimensions, it seems certain, that Lord 
Zouche soon after took up his abode at Bramshill ; for here he was re- 
siding when, in 1614, William Browne, a poet of some consideration in 
his day, dedicated to him his " Shepherd's Pipe," in these pleasing lines : 

" Be pleased, great Lord, when underneath the shades 
Of your delightful Bramshill (where the spring 
Her flowers with gentle blasts, with Zephyr's trades) 
Once more to hear a silly shepherd sing." &c* 

This Lord Zouche, of whom, probably, many only know the name as 
* Sir E. Brydges' Mem. Peers temp. James I., 74-75. 



(56 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

being the builder of Bramshill, was a very considerable person in his day. 
He was ambassador to Scotland, when the embassy to Scotland must have 
been a very important one, and must have required a cautious diplomatist 
and a wise man to execute it ; he was, moreover, Lord Warden of the 
Cinque Ports. And besides his official employments, he seems to have been 
a man of cultivated mind ; he was the first horticulturist of his day ; 
Bramshill may satisfy us as to his taste in architecture ; and it is 
pleasant to find poets and literary men appealing to his protection, and on 
tsrms of friendship with him. 

Here then he lived : and at his death (leaving only two daughters) he 
bequeathed Bramshill (with other extensive estates in the neighbourhood, 
which had been granted him by King James I., in 1617) to his kinsman 
and next heir male, Sir Edward Zouche, Kt., intending, doubtless, to 
continue Bramshill as the seat of his name and family. But Lord Zouche 
left the world just as great changes were coming upon his country, and 
when property was soon to become uncertain and insecure. His relation, 
Sir Edward Zouche, of Woking, the next possessor of Bramshill, was a 
dissolute man ; he had been one of the favorites of James I., who had made 
him his Knight-Marshal, and added him to his council. After his death, in 
] 6'34, Bramshill was inherited by his son, James Zouche, who, with 
grateful loyalty to the son of him to whom his family owed so much, raised 
a troop of horse, as we are told, " at his own proper costs and charges," for 
the Royal service in the civil wars, and sent two of his sons to serve in it.* 
This very act of loyalty was indirectly the cause of Bramshill passing out 
of the hands of the Zouche family. For the expense of maintaining this 
troop was so great, that poor James Zouche, or his son — for he died 
in 1643 — was compelled to disprse of Bramshill (probably the most 
saleable of his estates in the neighbourhood) to raise money for its ne- 
cessities. He acordingly sold Bramshill to Andrew Henley, Esq., son 
of Sir Robert Henley, a considerable lawyer, another of whose sons 
founded the family of the Grange, in this county, from whom Lord Chan- 
cellor Northington descended. Bramshill did not, however, long continue 
in the hands of the Henley family; and there is something very remarkable 
in their downward course in the world, and something mysterious about 
their final disappearance. Thus much, however, we can learn ; that Andrew 
Henley, the purchaser of Bramshill, was created a Baronet at the Restora- 
tion ; he died in 1675, and his son and successor, Sir Robert Henley, dying 
five years after him, left his estate, encumbered with a debt of 20,000/., 
to his next brother and successor in the title. He is said to have continued 

* Collier's Historical Dictionary, ii. 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 6Y 

in a course of extravagance which eventually ruined him ; he seems to have 
married an inferior person in the neighbouring village of Yately ; and Peter 
Le Neve, an industrious King-at-arms, at the beginning of the last century, 
who compiled pedigrees of the Baronets and Knights of his time, and illus- 
trated them with scraps of chit-chat picked up here and there, for the 
benefit of succeeding generations, tells us, that this last Sir Andrew Hen- 
ley, "killed a man and fled for it."* What eventually became of him is 
unknown ; but with him the connection of the Henleys with Bramshill 
ceased, for being thus ruined in fortune and in reputation, he sold his 
estates. 

It happened that at the time Bramshill was passing away from the 
Henleys, the Cope family had migrated, or were migrating, from their 
ancient dwelling-place in the north of Oxfordshire, where they had 
" flourished" (to use the words of Philemon Holland, the translator of 
Camden) " in great and good esteem," since the reign of Henry VII. With- 
out going fully into the causes of their quitting Oxfordshire, it is suffi- 
cient to say, that Sir Anthony Cope, the fourth Baronet, being offended that 
his brother and presumptive heir had married contrary to his wishes or with- 
out his sanction, made such a testamentary disposition of his estates as 
effectually alienated the greater portion of them from his successors in his 
title. His death occurred in 1675; and after some years of uncertainty, 
and probably of litigation, a final settlement had been effected in 1688, 
under which the bulk of the ancient family estates, including what Leland 
in his Itinerary, calls the " pleasant and gallant house at Han well," (of 
which only enough now remains standing to shew what a noble place it must 
once have been) passed away to a distant branch of the family. Sir John 
Cope, the fifth Baronet, thenceforward resided at Chelsea, then the most 
fashionable and aristocratic suburb of London; his eldest son had just re- 
turned from completing the grand tour, had married in I696 the daugh- 
ter of Sir Humphrey Monnoux, had received Knighthood as the eldest son 
of a Baronet from King William III., and was no doubt desirous of ob- 
taining an estate and mansion which might replace the old house of Han- 
well as the family seat. He became then, in I69& the purchaser of 
Bramshill, and it has continued from that time to the present, the property 
and dwelling-place of the succeeding Baronets. 

And now, all the while that I have been narrating the history of the descent 
of the estate, and sketching out the causes of its successive change of 
possessors, we have been steadily gazing at the beautiful west front. Let us 
just take a note of its main features before we leave it. Observe the fine 

* Le Neve's Pedigrees of Barts. in Coll. Arm. 

F 2 



68 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

colour of the red brick, relieved by the stone dressings and stone mullion 
of the windows, and the admirable effect of light produced by the wings 
which project by two successive breaks. The great feature here, however, 
is the centre division, which consists of an arcade of three open arches, 
forming a kind of terrace-porch to the principal entrance of the house ; 
above the centre of these, is a projecting semi-circular bay-window, on each 
side of which rise three tiers of pilasters with niches between them. The 
whole of this division is enriched with ornament ; which, above the broken 
cornice at the top, assumes a shape something resembling the Prince's plume 
surmounted by his coronet, which latter ornament also tops each of the 
projecting portions of the cornice: this seems in allusion to Henry, 
Prince of Wales. We have here also a good opportunity for viewing 
the beautiful design of the pierced parapet which runs round three sides 
of the house, and the equally elegant, though different pattern of that 
which surmounts the arcade of the porch. Passing now into the stable- 
court, let us pause a moment to look at the north front. This is a com- 
plete contrast to the side we have just left, inasmuch, as it is without orna- 
ment or decoration ; and yet, if we be lovers of that style of domestic archi- 
tecture, of which Bramshill is so excellent a specimen, we shall find some- 
thing to admire even here. Look at the projecting ends, with their lofty 
hay windows, the long line of front topped with gables, and the multi- 
tude of mullioned windows, which give such a notion of comfortable ac- 
commodation for troops of guests and their retainers. This front, then, 
may be taken as a good specimen of the plain phase of the Elizabethan 
style, as the one we have left is of its most decorated. But we have 
passed the iron gates at the other end of the stable-court ; and, instead of 
turning close under the garden- wall, let us advance a few steps on the 
greensward of the park to get a better view of the east front. This is 
unbroken, save by its broad windows, and by the projecting bay in the 
centre, above which, rises a stepped ogee gable, flanked by two pyramidal 
obelisks. In a niche in this gable, stands a statue of Lord Zouche, the 
founder of the house. Continuing our walk round the house, we may 
cross the grass to the ancient oak which stands on the knoll ; and sitting 
on the seat which encompasses its trunk, or lying on the turf at its roots, 
we have an excellent general view of the south or terrace front. Reserving 
our remarks on its details till we walk on the terrace, let us now observe 
the general effect and main features : the projecting ends — the long front 
between, broken into projecting bays — the light parapet crowning it— the 
admirable effect of the many windows, now jutting into spacious bays, now 
in the flat; and the whole thrown up and given breadth by the balus- 
traded terrace, which separates it from the sloping ground of the park 



BRAMSHLLL, HAMPSHIRE. 69 

below. When we have tarried long enough to enjoy this view, we may 
retrace our steps, in order to seek admittance into the interior ; but, as we 
turn away, we must not lose the beautiful peep into the distance, which 
opens on us between the trees of the long avenue, and the ivy-clad pro- 
jecting corner of the house. On our return, we skirt the balustrade of 
the larger terrace ; and, as we pass close under the garden wall, we must 
stop to look at the old gate (or postern, as Mr. Nash* designates it) with 
its broken pediment, its quaint obelisks, and its carved pilasters ; we almost 
expect to see some ancient serving-man or park-keeper reposing on the 
seats in the recessed arches on either side ; and we almost wonder that the 
old gate does not turn on its hinge, and give egress to some fair dame 
venturing forth from her garden, or to a walking party of stately squires 
and youthful maidens, habited in the picturesque costume with which 
Vandyke and his contemporaries have made us so familiar. But we have 
lingered too long about the exterior ; and the interior of the house will 
almost realize what we are here dreaming about, and bring us face to face 
with the former inhabitants of the mansion. 

Let us, then, return to the west front, and ascend the steps of the principal 
entrance to seek admission to the house, and, passing through the centre 
arch of the porch, enter the hall. At the upper end is the haut-pas 
or dais, and at the lower end is a screen richly carved and ornamented 
with ninety-two shields, three of which are surmounted by coronets. It 
has been not inaptly suggestedt that these shields, though now blank, were 
most probably intended to have borne the descent and alliances of the 
Zouches, and that the three coroneted escutcheons were designed for the 
three Baronies, (viz. Zouche of Haringworth, St. Maur, and Cantalupe), 
which the builder of Bramshill united in his own person. Two arches 
in the screen lead to the butler's pantry and domestic offices. The fire- 
place in the hall is very beautiful. Premising once for all, that I do not 
pretend to give a complete catalogue of the paintings, but only to name 
those that impressed themselves on my memory either on account of their 
merit, or of their history being interesting or remarkable, or of the per- 
sons they represent being connected with the house and family, let us 
look at those around us in the hall. With the exception of a modern 
picture of Sir John Cope's hounds, (in which is introduced a view of the 
west front of the mansion, and likenesses of the present Baronet and many 
of his personal friends,) and a curious old drawing of the terrace and 
south front of the house, the picturesln this hall are all portraits. Among 
them are : 

* Nash's Mansions of the Olden Time. Second series, 

+ Collectanea Topographica, viii., 60. 



70 



TIIK LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



"The wife of Wadhara Wyndham, Esq." I presume Catherine, daugh- 
ter of Edward Chandler, Bishop of Durham, and wife of Wadham 
Wyndham, Esq., of Eversley (uncle to Ann, Lady of Sir Richard Cope). 
She died in 1784, at the age of 79. 

" Sir Wadham Wyndham, knt." sitting, in his robes, grey hair, and coif. 
He was of Norrington in Wiltshire, was made a Justice of the King's 
Bench at the Restoration, and was ancestor of the Wyndhams of Salis- 
bury, &c. He was great-grandfather of Ann, Lady Cope. 

A duplicate of this picture was in the parlour at Hawkchurch, in Dor- 
setshire. See Hutchins' History of Dorset, vol. iii. p. 331. 

" Thomas, Lord Wyndham," Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in his robes, 
standing, with the purse and other insignia of the Chancellor. He was 
youngest son of John Wyndham of Norrington in Wilts, Esq., and grand- 
son of Sir Wadham Wyndham above mentioned. He became Lord Chief 
Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, was promoted to be Lord 
Chancellor of that kingdom in 1726, and resigned the seals in 1739- 
He was created Lord Wyndham of Finglas, which title expired at his 
death in 1745. 

There is an engraved portrait of him ; but, as I have never met with a 
copy, I am uncertain whether it is from this picture. 

" Sir Monnoux Cope," seventh Baronet. 

" Penelope, Lady Cope," his wife. She was only daughter of the Hon. 
Harry Mordaunt, second son of John, Viscount Mordaunt, by his second 
wife Penelope, daughter and heiress of William Tipping of Ewelm, in 
Oxfordshire, Esq., and inherited her mother's property. 

We pass through a door at the upper end of the hall, and crossing the 
foot of the stair-case enter the small drawing-room. Here are the follow- 
ing pictures : 

u Sir John Mordaunt Cope," the eighth Baronet, in the uniform of 
the North Hants Militia, of which he was Colonel. He was only son of 
Sir Monnoux Cope, whom he succeeded in title and estates in 176'3, and 
died in 1779- 

rl Marie de Medicis," by Vandyke.* She is sitting, in black, with 
white turnover and cuffs, a velvet skull-cap ; the hair in loose curls 
at the sides ; her right arm leans on a table on which is a crown, the 
hand holding red roses, the table-cover ornamented with fleurs-de-lis. 

This beautiful picture was in the possession of Charles I., in whose 
Catalogue it is thus described, " No. 22, a picture of the Queen's Mother 

* It is shewn as Catherine de Medicis ; but independently of the picture being 
identified by the engravings of it, and by Charles I.'s Catalogue, Catherine de Medicis 
died ten years before Vandyke was born. 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 71 

of France, sitting in an arm chair in a black habit, holding in her right 
hand a handful of roses ; half a figure, so big as life, in a carved gilded 
frame ; done by Sir Ant. Vandyke; bought by the King."* 

It was sold at the dispersion of Charles I.'s pictures. I do not know 
when it came into the possession of the Cope family. 

Of this picture there are the following engravings : — The " head and 
neck " only, reversed, in an ornamental frame, inscribed, " Maria conjux 
Henrici IV. Magni Galliarum et Navarrae Regina invictissima. P. Van 
Sompel, sculpsit." Another to the hips ; the crown on table on the wrong 
side of the figure, reversed ; inscribed, " Maria de Medices, Regina Franciae, 
Trium Regum Mater. Paul. Pontius, sculp." Another as the last, but 
not reversed, in an oval within a square frame, inscribed, " Maria de Medi- 
cis, Trium Regum Mater. Petrus de Jode, excudit." 

The eventful life of this Queen, and the strange reverses she expe- 
rienced, belong to the history of her time. She was daughter of Fran- 
cesco Maria de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; her marriage with 
Henry IV. was celebrated with great splendour at Lyons, in 1600. After 
her husband's assassination she became Regent of the kingdom, but 
through the machinations of Richelieu she was forced into exile, in 1631. 
She came to this country in 1638, on a visit to her daughter Queen Hen- 
rietta Maria, at which time she probably sat to Vandyke for this portrait, 
at the request of her son-in-law. She was then in her 63rd year, which 
is about the age represented in the picture before us. She died at Co- 
logne, in great distress, in 1642. 

"Sir Anthony Vandyke," by himself. He is leaning on a pedestal, 
dressed in brown, with light bushy hair ; a most beautiful and interesting 
picture. The head (which represents him a young man) full of cha- 
racter and expression ; the hands exquisitely painted. Engraved as far 
as the waist by Paul Pontius, and inscribed " Antoine Van Dyck, Cheva- 
lier du Roi D'Angleterre." 

A somewhat similar picture, but of smaller dimensions, is described in 
Smith's Catalogue, part iii., pp. 210, 211. 

" Henry VIII. and Anna Bullen," by Hogarth. In the foreground 
the King making love to his future Queen, who is attended by a negro 
boy ; in the background his wife, Catharine of Arragon, turns with a 
look of anger and jealousy to Cardinal Wolsey. 

This was one of the pictures which Hogarth painted for his friend 
Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, in the old great 
room of which place of amusement it used formerly to hang. It was 

* Vcrtuc's Catalogue, p. 111. 



72 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

finely engraved by Hogarth himself, as early as 1729> and again by 
Cook.* 

•' Abigail meeting David." by old Franks. 
" A Holy Family," said to be by Rubens. (?) 

We have lingered long in this room, yet surely not too long to examine 
the works of art with which its walls are decorated. The two admirable 
portraits by Vandyke particularly deserve attention, not only for their 
merit as paintings (which is very great), but also as conveying to us 
representations of one who filled a remarkable and a strange part in the 
busy history of her time, and of the great painter himself, whose works 
are so familiar to us here in England. The expression of the face and 
eyes is so truthful, that we bear it away in our memories rather as the 
recollection of one we have known than of a picture we have looked 
upon. 

Leaving the room by a door opposite to that by which we entered, we 
pass into the dining-room, a spacious antique-looking apartment, hung 
with curious tapestry representing forest scenery. 

At the extremity of this room a door opens into the billiard-room, which 
concludes the suite of apartments shewn to visitors on the ground floor. 
It contains — 

" A full length of Queen Elizabeth." 

" A full length of a Lady" standing near a table, covered with a green 
table-cover, on which are two dogs. This curious and interesting picture 
is placed in a bad light. I do not know whom it represents. 

Retracing our steps through the rooms we have just left, let us ascend 
the stair-case, which is of ample proportions, such as the old architects 
constructed who understood how roomy and noble an air a spacious hall 
and staircase give a house. They made it part — and an essential part — of 
their design j whereas now it is too commonly cramped up in a dark 
corner as if it were altogether an afterthought. And now, while we have 
been thus discoursing of staircases, we have mounted the three broad 
flights of this one, and, as we have attained the spacious landing-place, 
let us take a survey of the pictures which cover the walls. 

That on the right is a " Scene from Cymbeline," by William Hamilton. 
It was, I presume, painted for Boydell's Shakesperean Gallery, though it 
is not one of those engraved in his work. 

In front of us is a full length of William, third Earl of Pembroke. It 
is said in the MS. Catalogue to be by Vandyke ; but he died before Vandyke 
came to England. I rather think that it is by Cornelius Jansen. It 

* Nichols' Hogarth, p. 26. 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 73 

represents him with his white staff as Lord Chamberlain to James I. He is 
habited in black with the ribbon and George ; an architectural perspective 
on his left. He was eldest son of Earl Henry by 

" The subject of all verse, 
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," 

succeeded his father in 1601, and received the Garter in 1603, at the 
accession of James L, with whom he was much in favor. He was 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and held divers great offices. 
He died in 1630. There are several engravings of him; I rather think 
that engraved by Cooper, as far as the middle, is from this picture. 

The family pictures which hang around are 

" Hugh Bethel, Esq.," of Rise, in Yorkshire. He died in 1752. 

" Anne, his wife," daughter of Sir John Cope the sixth Baronet. 

" Mrs. Tipping" — Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Colet, of Chelsea, 
Esq., wife of William Tipping, of Ewelm, in Oxfordshire, Esq., and mother 
of the Honorable Mrs. Mordaunt, whose only daughter married Sir Mon- 
noux Cope. 

"The Honorable Harry Mordaunt," in a blue uniform, red waistcoat, &c. 
He was second son of John, Viscount Mordaunt, and brother of Charles, 
Earl of Peterborough. He was a lieutenant-general in the army and 
treasurer of the ordnance. He died in 1720. His daughter married Sir 
Monnoux Cope. 

" Frances, Lady Gould," (in white) by Kneller, daughter of Sir Hum- 
phry Monnoux, Bart., and sister to Alice, Lady Cope. She was first married 
to Sir Edward Gould, of Highgate, Middlesex, Kt., who left her a widow in 
1728, and afterwards to John Venables, Esq., who resided in a curious old 
house named Woodcote (still standing), at Bramdean, in Hampshire. 

"Penelope Mordaunt" (in red), by Kneller. She was daughterand heiress 
of William Tipping, Esq., of Ewelm, in Oxfordshire, and second wife of the 
Honorable Harry Mordaunt : her only child by him married Sir Monnoux 
Cope. 

" Anne, Lady Cope," by Gibson. She was daughter of Mr. Philip Booth, 
and wife of Sir John Cope, the fifth Baronet. She is the fair lady whose 
marriage provoked the displeasure of his elder brother, and caused the 
alienation of the estates from the family, as I have narrated in page 67. 

I presume that this is the picture bequeathed by her son Anthony Cope 
to his nephew, Sir Monnoux Cope, as " the half length of his (testator's) 
mother, with his own and his wife's portrait pictures, painted by Gibson ; 
also two small pieces, in crayons, of himself and his wife, by Armstrong ; 



74 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

and a half length of himself by Vanderbanck." There are two other 
portraits of her in the house, but this is the only " half-length." 

" Sir John Cope" (second of that name) the fifth Baronet, husband of the 
last named. A half length in armour with a red scarf, holding a truncheon 
He was second son of Sir John Cope, the second Baronet, by the Lady 
Elizabeth Fane, daughter of the 1st Earl of Westmoreland. He "spent 
many years of his youth in travel in France, Italy, Germany, Flanders, 
and Holland."* He was in the army, and held a command at Dunkirk, when 
that fortress was sold by Charles II. to the French. He died in 1721, 
at the age of 87. 

" Charles, third Earl of Peterborough," by Mary Grace, after Annoni ; 
full-length, in uniform, leaning on a cannon. He was celebrated for his 
victories in Spain, in the reign of Queen Anne ; received the Garter from 
her successor, and was employed in several diplomatic missions. He died 
in the year 1 735. He was uncle to Penelope, Lady Cope. 

" Mrs. Poyntz and her son," by Mary Grace — full-lengths. She is repre- 
sented according to the fashion of the day in the character of some Heroine 
or Goddess, perhaps Minerva ; her helmet lies on the ground, her spear is 
in her right hand, her left on her son's shoulder, who is represented as about 
10 or 12 years of age. Anna Maria, daughter of the Honorable General 
Lewis Mordaunt (and cousin to Penelope, Lady Cope), married Stephen 
Poyntz of Midgham, in Berkshire, Esq. ; a diplomatist of the early part of 
the last century. I do not know which of her two sons is here repre- 
sented ; her eldest was grand-father to the present Lady Clinton, Countess 
Spencer, and Marchioness of Exeter, the co-heiresses of the Poyntz family. 

But let us pass on into the principal drawing-room : and here we shall 
find a fulfilment of the observation that at Bramshill we see, not only an 
ancient house, but an ancient house in its ancient state. For it is not only 
the ample proportions of this fine apartment which strike us, or its fretted 
ceiling, or deeply recessed windows with their broad mullions and latticed 
panes, or its mantel-piece of various coloured marbles piled up to the very 
ceiling — such as these we have seen elsewhere — but it is that all and every- 
thing in the room agrees, and is in keeping with these. No modern grate 
usurps the place of the massive and-irons (or chimney dogs) piled with 
logs. The walls have escaped the house decorator and paper-hanger, and 
are hidden by the tapestry hangings. The couches, too, of an olden shape, 
covered with the handiwork of some fair damsel, whose picture smiles upon 
us in the adjoining rooms — (which the worsted-working ladies of our 
party will learnedly discourse upon, and curiously examine, to learn by 

* See his will in Prerogative Court of Canterbury. 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 75 

what forgotten stitch such wondrous effects are produced) — the inlaid 
tables — all seem to belong to a period long past; and nothing modern glares 
upon the eye, and breaks the spell of the old house and its contents. 

But this room contains somewhat well worth a close examination for the 
merit of their design and curious history — the Tapestries. Let us care- 
fully inspect them ; but first let me tell you somewhat of their subject and 
history. They represent events in the life and death of Decius Mus, 
who we know, or ought to know, devoted himself, that is sacrificed him- 
self and threw away his life to appease the Infernal Gods (as he believed), 
and to secure the safety of the people. They are worked from cartoons 
by Rubens. 

I find the great painter thus writing of these very tapestries to Sir 
Dudley Carleton, (from whom he was anxious to obtain a collection of 
marbles, by giving him in exchange some of his own pictures and a set of 
tapestries worked from his designs,) in a letter to Sir Dudley, dated 
Antwerp, 26th May, 1618 : 

" Toccante le Tapizzarie .... Mandara a v. e. tutte le misure 
del mio cartone della storia di Decius Mus, Console Romano, che si de- 
vovb per la vittoria del popolo Romano, ma bisognara scrivere a Brusselles 
per averle giuste, havendo io consigniato ogni cosa al maestro del lavoro. 

" In respect of the tapestries ,1 will send your Excellency the 

whole measurements of my cartoons of the History of Decius Mus, the 
Roman Consul, who devoted himself for the success of the Roman people ; 
but I shall write to Brussels to have them correct, having given everything 
to the master of the works."* 

Sir Dudley Carleton, however, did not eventually obtain these tapestries, 
as it appears that he made choice of another set, representing the History 
of Scipio. How they found their way to Bramshill — whether they were 
brought by Rubens to this country on his visit in 1629-30, or whether, as 
is very probable, they were purchased by Sir John Cope, the second 
of that name, during his residence abroad, or by his son, the purchaser of 
this house — I have not been able to ascertain. 

The cartoons of Rubens, from which they were worked, were sold in 
177& in the collection of M. Bertells of Brussels, for fifteen hundred 
florins ; and two of them were afterwards in this country, and were ex- 
hibited at the European Gallery in 1791- I do not know where they 
now are. 

* Smith's Catalogue, part ii., 101, 2, 3. These descriptions are taken from the 
pictures in the Lichtenstein Gallery. I am not quite sure that the description of the 
second subject exactly corresponds with its representation in the tapestry. 



76 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Rubens also executed a set of pictures from these designs, which are 
now in the Gallery of the Prince of Lichtenstein, near Vienna. He added 
two others to these four, as there are six pictures in the Lichtenstein 
Gallery. 

Having thus traced something of the history of these tapestries, and 
of the cartoons from which they were executed, let us examine their several 
subjects. The one at the farthest end of the room, represents "Decius con- 
sulting the priests, previous to the battle with the Gauls and Samnites." 

u The General, clad in armour, over which is cast the paludamentum, 
stands before the priests, awaiting the result of their divinations : one of 
the latter, habited in splendid sacerdotal robes, is by the altar ; and the 
second priest stands on his right holding the entrails of the victim; a stag 
lies on the ground in front ; on the left are two men bringing forward a 
white heifer." This has been engraved by Schmuzer. 

The next is " Decius addressing his soldiers previous to the battle." " The 
noble warrior is on an elevation on the right, in the attitude of addressing 
his troops, some of whom, chiefly officers, bearing the Roman banners and 
ensigns, stand before him with profound attention. The time appears 
to be indicated by the sun breaking forth in the east." Engraved also by 
Schmuzer. 

At the other end of the room is " The Death of Decius." " In the 
midst of the battle and confusion of an obstinate and sanguinary con- 
flict, is seen the noble Decius falling backwards from his plunging char- 
ger, pierced by a spear in the neck — while one of his valiant troops, 
mounted on a spirited piebald horse, is avenging his death. Among the 
dead and dying, with which the field is covered, is one lying prostrate on 
his back in the foreground, with a spear broken in his breast." Engraved 
by G. A. Muller. 

The fourth represents " The Obsequies of Decius." " The dead soldier 
is extended on a couch, on each side of which are several of his companions 
in arms. Among those on the left, is a subaltern, rudely holding a female 
by the skirts of her dress with one hand, and a captive by the hair of the 
head with the other. The former has an infant in her arms and another 
by her side ; near them is a second soldier dragging forward a young woman 
by the hair of her head ; three prisoners lie bound in front, and the rich 
spoils of victory, consisting of gold and silver vases, &c, are distributed 
on the right. The head of the couch is decorated with trophies, composed 
of arms, banners, and the heads of enemies." Engraved in a large plate by 
Adam Bartsch. 

Of these designs, a critic observes that they are " most striking, bold, 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 77 

vigorous, and rapid ; "* and another that " they do honour to the name of 
the master ; . . . . the creative mind of Rubens reigns through- 
out, in the grandeur and simplicity of the compositions/'t 

As these curious tapestries cover almost the whole extent of the walls of 
this room, there are but two pictures, one over each door ; viz. : " A 
View in Rome/' by Vercoli, over the door by which we entered ; " A 
Seapiece," by Ramsay, over that by which we now pass into the library ; 
in which is a large and doubtless valuable collection of books, and above 
the presses containing them, a large number of family pictures, among 
which I can only specify the following. 

"Mary, wife of Anthony Cope," so called in the house, but I know of no 
person of the name answering the description. Is it not rather " the por- 
trait picture of his wife," (Ann, daughter of the celebrated nonjuring 
Bishop, Nathaniel Spinckes,) bequeathed by Anthony Cope ? (See p. 73.) 

" Sir John Cope," the third of the name. He was the sixth Baronet, and 
the purchaser of this house ; was long in Parliament in the reigns of Queen 
Anne and the two first Georges ; he succeeded his father in 1721, and died 
in 1749. 

" Alice, his Lady." She was the daughter of Sir Humphrey Monnoux, of 
Wooton, in Bedfordshire, Bart.; was married in I696, and died within a 
month after her husband. 

" Alice, Lady Monnoux," her mother. She was daughter of Sir Thomas 
Cotton, of Connington, in Huntingdonshire, Bart., and granddaughter of 
the celebrated Sir Robert Cotton, the collector of the Cottonian Library. 

" Sir John Cope," the third of that name, in a large flowing wig; in an 
oval. 

" Anne, his lady," in blue ; a cap and lace kerchief. 

" Sir Robert Cotton." I suppose from the dress that this must be Sir R. C, 
of Hatley St. George, in Cambridgeshire, brother to Alice, Lady Monnoux, 
above mentioned. 

" Galen Cope/' with a cap; a scroll in his hand; youngest son 
of Sir John Cope, the fifth Baronet. He served for some time as a 
Captain of Horse, but afterwards taking orders, was presented by his 
brother to the family living of Eversley. He was grandfather of the pre- 
sent Baronet. 

" Albian Cope" and " Daniel Cope," two sons of the fifth Baronet, who 
died young. 

" William Cope," sixth son of the fifth Baronet. He was appointed an 
Ensign in the Coldstream Guards, in 1706, and was murdered in the Tower 

* Murray's Handbook of Southern Germany, 172 f Smith's Catalogue. 



78 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

guardroom soon afterwards. The curious circumstances relating to his 
murder, and to the discovery and conviction of the murderer, may be found 
in the State Trials. 

Between the windows are— 

" Mrs. Pitt." I presume Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Wyndham of Hawk- 
church in Dorsetshire, Esq., who married Willi?m Pitt of Kingston, in the 
same county, Esq. 

" Anne (Booth) Lady Cope." This portrait represents her younger 
than either of those before mentioned. 

Over the doors are — 

te Lady Bolingbroke." I do not know the painter of this charming portrait, 
nor have I been able with certainty to identify the person it represents ; 
but / believe it to be Marie Clare des Champs de Marsilly, the second wife 
of the celebrated Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, the minister 
of Queen Anne's reign. She was niece to Madame de Maintenon, and 
widow of the Marquis de Villette. She was a person of remarkable talent 
and delightful manners. 

" Rachael, Dowager Countess of Bath," daughter of Francis Fane, Earl of 
Westmoreland, and sister to Lady Elizabeth Cope, mother of the fourth 
and fifth Baronets. She married Henry Bourchier, first Earl of Bath, and 
after his decease, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex. 

The rooms through which we have passed, are all situated in the south 
front of the house, and look out upon the terrace ; but, traversing the 
library, we are admitted to the gallery. The great length of this apart- 
ment (130 feet) which extends along the whole east front of the house, 
(the cross piece of our plan, p. 64) the lightness of effect of its numerous 
windows — three sides of it being almost all glazed — the deeply recessed 
bay in the centre, and its panelled walls, all contribute to give it a 
pleasing air of antiquity. Its " plenishing," too, is well calcu- 
lated to lead us back to the days when groups of knights in doublet and 
hose, and dames in ruff and farthingale, promenaded in it, or traced the 
measured step of the coranto. Quaint high-backed chairs, and old 
fashioned furniture, which have grown too ancient and infirm for the more 
decorated drawing rooms, seem to have found their way here to spend their 
time in ease and solemn retirement. The walls too are garnished with a 
multitude of prints — some of men of renown in their day, when their like- 
nesses, no doubt, were eagerly sought after, but whose very names are now 
almost forgotten; some of objects and scenes of exciting interest at the time, 
which now exist only in the pages of the historian — some exceedingly curious 
maps and plans — a few pictures — Roman baths by an Italian painter of the 
last century — a Lucretia (of which I think there is an engraving), a por- 



BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. 70 

trait of George II., and some few family pictures (mostly, I think, in a 
faded state) — makeup the garnishing of this ancient-looking, and therefore, 
I must say, charming gallery. 

But we must leave it : and returning through the library and drawing- 
room,' across the staircase, we enter the chapel room, an apartment of peculiarly 
light and elegant appearance ; the two deep recesses of the windows, in which 
separate parties might ensconce themselves almost as much apart as if in sepa- 
rate rooms, are a curious feature. Let us enter that formed by the circular 
bay over the principal entrance, and look forth at the extensive prospect ; 
just below us is the long straight avenue, bordered by its rows of dark 
oaks ; beyond, the flat heathy country, stretching away in the extreme dis- 
tance to the woods of Highclere. 

This room is rich in the productions of Lely's pencil. The three pictures 
on each side of the fire-place (six in all) are by him. 

" Charles 1 1.," his "■ Queen, Catharine of Braganza,"and " Nell Gwynne." 
Of these it is unnecessary to give any account ; but the three on the 
other side are not perhaps so generally known. 

" Lady-Upper Ossory." If this picture is rightly named, I do not know 
who it represents. Bryan Fitz-Patrick, the Lord Upper-Ossory of Charles 
the Second's time, was thrice married: it may be one of these ladies, his third 
wife. Emilie de Nassau, Countess of Ossory, was a celebrated beauty at 
the Court of Charles II. ; her picture by Lely is at Hampton Court. 

"Lucy Walters," daughter of Richard Walters, of Haverfordwest, in Pem- 
brokeshire, Esq. She is said to have been secretly married to King Charles 
II., when a young man. She had by him a son and a daughter ; the son 
was the celebrated James, Duke of Monmouth, ancestor of the Dukes of 
Buccleuch. 

"Margaret, Lady Pratt." She was daughter of Sir Humphrey Forster, 
Bart., who resided in the fine old mansion of Aldermaston, in Berkshire, 
in the neighbourhood of Bramshill ; she married Sir George Pratt, of 
Coleshill, also in Berkshire. 

Over the fire-place is a portrait of " Mr. Tipping," by Dobson; sitting, (in 
brown) his left hand on the head of a large dog ; an admirable picture. 
Dobson was an English artist, who painted much in the manner of Van- 
dyke, who recommended him to King Charles I. This picture certainly 
gives us a very high idea of his capabilities as a portrait painter. 

Over a door, "William Cope," Cofferer to King Henry VII., by Holbein. 
Though this picture bears an inscription with this name (evidently muc h 
later than the original painting), I much doubt the authenticity of it : 
either there is an error in the name of the painter or of the person repre- 
sented, for William Cope, who was cofferer of the household, and high in 



30 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

favour with Henry VII., and who was the founder of this branch of the 
Cope family, died in 1513; he was then at an advanced age, for his 
eldest son was at that time upwards of forty years old ;* but Holbein was 
then not more than 15 (having been born in 1498), and did not come to 
England till many years after William Cope's death. The person here 
represented is a man of between thirty and forty. As far as my know- 
ledge extends, I think the picture is most probably by Holbein : certainly 
not by an earlier painter. It seems highly probable that it is the por- 
trait by Holbein of Sir Anthony Cope, the son of the Cofferer, William 
Cope. He being a person of considerable eminence in his day — a man of 
learning and an author, connected with the court of Henry VIII., 
where he eventually became chamberlain to Queen Katharine Parr — 
was a very likely person for Holbein to have painted ; either on 
his arrival here, or possibly abroad; for Sir Anthony was for a considerable 
time abroad, and on terms of friendship with many of the learned foreigners 
of the period. The age of the portrait agrees perfectly with this supposi- 
tion, for there is documentary evidencet that, at the time of William Cope's 
death, this, his second son, had not attained the age of 26 ; and he may 
probably have been considerably under that age. 

We have been long looking at this picture, and considering 
who it represents ; yet it seems but fair not to raise a doubt as to the 
authenticity of a portrait, without distinctly stating the reasons why such 
a doubt exists, and supporting the suggestion of another name by clear 
evidence. 

Between the windows are two pictures of children of Hugh Bethell, by 
Sir Peter Lely. I take them to be the two sons of Hugh Bethell, by Ann 
Cope, his wife, in their infancy. 

There are here also two small, highly-finished pictures of Henry VIII. 
and Edward VI., by Holbein. A portrait of Miss Greenwood, daughter 
of Benjamin Greenwood, of St. Mary Cray, Kent, Esq., and aunt to the 
present Baronet. 

There are also some Dutch pictures in the room, well deserving a careful 
inspection. Over the door, as we come out, is a Sea-piece, with a light- 
house, by W. Vandervelde. 

We have lingered so long, that we can only glance at some of the fur- 
niture here, which is very handsome, and at some curious articles of orna- 
ment, as ancient china, &c, which are worthy of a close inspection. The 
ceiling, too, of this apartment (as of many of those we have traversed) is 
highly ornamented, and worked with pendants and enriched cornices. 

* Tnquis. p. mortem. 5 Hen. viii. 31. f Inquis. p. mortem. 5 Hen. viii. 31. 



BTCAMSHTLL, HAMPSHIRE. 81 

As we descend the stair-case, we may observe among the portraits which 
hang in the inner hall or lobby, that of "Anthony Cope, Esq.," by Vander- 
banck, which he bequeathed to his nephew. He was the second son of 
the fifth Baronet, married the daughter of the nonjuring Bishop Spinckes, 
and died in 1750. 

Here is also an exceedingly pleasing picture of "Ann, Lady Cope," daugh- 
ter of Thomas Wyndham, of Yately, Esq., and wife of Sir Richard Cope, 
Sub -Dean of Westminster, the sixth Baronet, whom she predeceased in 1 785 ; 
and, I think, some other portraits of her family, the Wyndhams. 

A door at the foot of the great staircase leads us to the terrace, which 
is formed along the south front of the house, between the projecting ends, 
beneath which it terminates under an arcade of two arches ; a balustrade 
separates it from the park, with which it communicates by a flight of steps. 
As we walk along the velvety turf of the terrace, we have a good oppor- 
tunity of examining the details of this front, of which we before took a 
general and distant view. Passing under the ornamental arches at the 
eastern end, a door admits us to the second terrace ; this is of considerable 
dimensions and of a square form. It was in olden time appropriated to 
some ancient game, and the ring through which the ball was driven 
still remains erect in the centre of this terrace. 

We have now completed our circuit of the house and its " pleasaunces," 
and taking a last look at its fair walls and gallant buildings, let us look 
abroad upon the scenery of the Park. It " is," as an intelligent writer 
observes, " singularly wild and romantic. The wild heather blooms in 
rich and luxuriant beauty on the velvet turf, as though the foot of man 
had never been there to trample on its blossoms.''* The tall and graceful 
fern, too, waves in feathery beauty in its more retired nooks, while the 
smooth greensward stretches around the mansion and beside the water. 
Here, too, are many goodly trees, especially some fine ancient specimens of 
the fir tribe, to which this soil seems particularly congenial. Some of 
these doubtless have reared their stately heads over Bramshill Park since 
the days when Lord Zouche made the first plantations around his new 
built house. He was, as I have said, a celebrated horticulturist ; and it is 
more than probable that some of the older trees were planted by him, and 
not unlikely that some of the Pines and other Evergreens may have been 
among the earliest specimens of their kind introduced into England. But 
when we think of Lord Zouche and look upon his trees, Bramshill Park 
assumes an historical importance : — for here it was that the Puritan Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, in the summer of 1620, met with 
the sad accident of shooting the park-keeper. The Archbishop was out 

* Environs of Reading, p. 15. 



£2 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

of health, and, being advised to try change of air, visited the Lord 
Zouche, the friend of literary men, at Bramshill. Here, notwithstanding 
that he had strenuously resisted the Book of Sports two years before, he 
(with an inconsistency not uncommon in persons of his opinions) relaxed 
himself by shooting at the buck; and, with an awkwardness which (we 
may at least hope) proves his inexperience in the sport, he lodged the 
arrow in one Peter Hawkins, a park-keeper, who bled to death in a short 
time. The King, the Clergy, and the people were astounded and horrified at 
this event. " The like had never happened in our Church nor in any other, in 
the person of a Bishop and Metropolitan."* His suspension, the contro- 
versies that ensued, the refusal of his suffragans elect to receive conse- 
cration from his blood-stained hands, and his subsequent pardon under the 
Great Seal, and restoration to the duties of his office — these are matters of 
History t and need not be' related here. But , the Archbishop's own 
affliction and deep repentance are not so well known. As long as he 
lived he rigidly observed Tuesday, the day on which the accident 
occurred, as a fast, in perpetual recollection of his mischance; he 
allowed an annuity to the widow of the unfortunate park-keeper ; and I 
observe that he provides for her in his will.} The noble Hospital which 
he founded at Guildford, the place of his birth, for a master, twelve 
brethren, and eight sisters, has been said to be also one of the fruits of 
his repentance ; but this is a mistake : for he had sketched out the plan of 
that charity, and indeed had laid the first stone of the edifice, the year 
before his fatal hunting in Bramshill Park ; though it is very likely that 
the extent of his endowment and the amount of his alms deeds may have 
been increased in his affliction for the bloodshed of which he had been guilty. 
So much for the ancient history of Bramshill ; let us record one fact of 
recent occurrence to be chronicled in its future traditions. The visit of 
Queen Victoria : — who with the Prince Consort went over the mansion on 
21st January, 1845 (the Court being then at Strathfieldsaye), and ex- 
pressed herself much pleased with the view of this ancient English house, 
-in its olden English state. 

* Racket's Life of Archbishop Williams, p. 65. 

f See a full account of them in the Biographia Britannica, vol. i. art. Abbot. 

t Speaker Onslow's Life of Archbishop Abbot. 



LANCASTER CASTLE. 83 



EancaStcr Cattle. 



Time-honored Lancaster, a town among the most ancient and the 
most historic in England, the seat of the red rose, and the capital of the 
fairest duchy that appertains to the sovereignty of these realms, — Lan- 
caster, rich in byegone deeds of fame, rich also in judicial events and 
recollections, though now no longer a place of regal pomp and pride, 
preserves attractions which are more perennial — those exceeding beauties 
of scenery amid which it has its locality. There is, indeed, no other 
town in England that can boast of such fine views abou t it as Lancaster, 
Of one of its aspects, that from Highfield, Mrs. Ann R adcliffe, the re- 
nowned romancist, thus speaks in her Tour to the Lakes : 

"There is a view from this hill as pre-eminent for grandeur, and 
comprehending an extent of sea and land, and a union of the sublime in 
both, which we have never seen equalled. In the green vale of the Lune 
below lies the town, spreading up the side of a hill over-topped by the 
old towers of the castle and church. Beyond, over a ridge of gentle 
heights which bind the west side of the vale, the noble inlet of the sea, 
that flows upon the Ulverstone and Lancaster sands, is seen at the feet 
of an amphitheatre formed by nearly all the mountains of the Lakes ; an 
exhibition of Alpine grandeur, both in form and colouring, which, with 
the extent of water below, composes a scene perhaps faintly rivalling that 
of the lake of Geneva. To the south and west, the Irish Channel finishes 
the view " 

But we must leave the town itself to more particularly contemplate its 
main and most decorative feature, the Castle. This is one of the surpass- 
ingly magnificent buildings of England. In appearance it somewhat 
resembles the royal abode of Windsor, which, at various periods of our 
annals, it rivalled in stately splendour and stirring events. To detail 
more minutely the Lancastrian edifice's historic and architectural great- 
ness, we recur, with satisfaction, to a very able description, published at 
Lancaster by Mr. Barwick, and here acknowledge the assistance it affords 
us. 

" Lancaster Castle occupies, with the church, a commanding position on 
a hill to the west of the town. The Roman Castrum was commenced on 
the site of the present castle, the outline of the camp being an ellipsis, 
with a double wall and moat round the summit of the entire hill. Part 
of the moat yet remains. The form of the castle, as erected by the 
Romans, was a polygon. Two round towers are remembered by persona 

g2 



84 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

yet living, corresponding in shape with the foundations of other Roman 
towers since discovered, and which lead to the belief that the castle once 
consisted of seven of these towers, distant from each other about twenty- 
six paces, and joined by a small and open gallery. The present towers 
are the Dungeon tower, Adrian's tower, the Well tower, the Gateway 
tower, and the large square central citadel called the Lungess. Of these, 
the lower part of Adrian's tower, the small square tower on the south 
side of the castle called the Dungeon tower, and the Well tower are 
supposed to be Roman. The large square tower built by Roger of Poitou, 
the Norman baron, rises in imposing majesty above the rest of the pile. 
Many antiquarians have supposed that the foundations of the Lungess 
tower are of Saxon origin. Be this as it may, there is little doubt that 
the superstructure is Norman, and of such massive strength as to bid 
defiance for many ages yet to come to the attacks of time. The castle 
was anciently surrounded by a cemented and almost indestructible mass 
called the Wery wall, made by the Romans. The Wery wall might be 
seen in many places less than a hundred years ago, together with the ditch 
outside of it. This wall, when described by Stukely, ran west of the 
castle and church, towards Bridge-lane, pointing directly on the river. 
At Bridge-lane it made an angle, and ran along the brow of the hill, to 
Church-street. 

" The Gateway tower, though of less vast proportions than the Norman 
keep, is the most picturesque part of the building. It was built by John 
o'Gaunt, whose statue occupies a niche over the entrance. The lilies of 
France, semi-quartered with the lions of England cut in a shield, were 
placed on one side of the entrance ; with a label ermine of three points, 
the distinction of John o'Gaunt, on the other. The Gateway tower is 
flanked by two octagonal turrets, 66 feet high,, surrounded by watch 
towers. Round the towers and over the curtain are over-hanging battle- 
ments, supported by three rows of corbels, perforated in a perpendicular 
direction, to allow of boiling water or molten lead being poured down 
upon assailants, in the event of an escalade. The castle underwent a 
thorough repair and restoration by John o'Gaunt. It had suffered greatly 
from the fury of the Scots, who, in 1322, invaded England, and burnt 
Lancaster, doing great damage to the castle. John o'Gaunt deepened and 
restored the ancient moat, placed a drawbridge in front of his Gateway 
tower, and put up a portcullis of thick wrought iron, the place of which 
may still be seen at the entrance gate. 

" The Castle of Lancaster in the time of John o'Gaunt was at the height 
of its grandeur and magnificence. Ever since the creation of the barony 
of Lancaster by the Norman Conqueror, Lancaster Castle had been not 



LANCASTER CASTLE. 85 

only a strong military fortress, but also the baronial residence. But its 
palmiest days were under the earls and dukes of Lancaster, before the 
duchy became an appendage of the crown. Either members of the royal 
family of England by birth, or in alliance with the blood-royal by mar- 
riage, the dukes and earls of Lancaster held their court in the Castle of 
Lancaster in something like royal state. It became the resort of the flower 
of England's chivalry. Barons, knights, and esquires who had won im- 
mortal honour on the well-fought plains of France, as well as ladies of 
high birth and gentle breeding, were entertained as guests within its 
walls, or formed the suite of these powerful nobles and their families. 
The dresses of the court were, as we have seen, of the richest character. 
Many were the gay processions of high-born dames upon their palfreys, 
and gallants in attendance upon their chargers, that wended their way 
down the Market-street of that day, upon some excursion of health or 
pleasure. Hawking was a favourite sport, in which the ladies of the 
court took great delight ; and the chief falconer on such occasions became 
an important personage. The pleasures of the chase often summoned the 
nobles and knights from their early repose ; a large red deer, with horns 
much larger than our present bucks, being found in great plenty in the 
forest of Bowland, in Wyersdale, Roeburndale, Hindburndale, &c. On 
other occasions the men-at-arms and archers were marched out for military 
inspection and review, while the dames of the court were sure to lend 
animation to the scene by their presence. Archery was a favourite pas- 
time ; and the meadow to the south-west of the castle, in which the modern 
Toxopholites (known as the John o'Gaunt's arehers) meet for practice, 
has probably often been the scene of friendly trials of skill, in which archers 
in suits of " Lincoln green" have contested the prize with the sturdy Lan- 
cashire bowmen. The walls of the castle itself were daily the scenes of 
brilliant pageants and princely festivities. The barons and vassals of the 
honor held of the Earls of Lancaster as in chief, and were under a sove- 
reign allegiance and fealty to them, as they to the king. The surrounding 
barons, knights, and tenants, were bound to frequent the palace of the 
earl, both to do feudal suit and service, and also to grace his court with 
their presence. To these, on state occasions, magnificent hospitality was 
tendered ; nor were these state feasts, at which the ladies of the court 
were entertained, without the further sanction which the presence of 
bishops, priors, and other ecclesiastics could confer. The noble baron of 
beef, the foaming tankard of ale, and the wine of Bordeaux for the guests 
above the salt ; the affability of " the good Earl," and, afterwards, of " the 
good Duke" of Lancaster ; the rude mirth and good humour of the feuda 



gO THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

era ; the peals of laughter which followed the witticisms of some favourite 
and privileged jester, all testifies that 

l 'Twas merry in the Hall, 
When beards wagged all.' 

" The castle gradually went into decay until the reign of Elizabeth. 
The threatened Spanish armada caused the various castles and forts along 
the coast to be put into a state of defence, and Lancaster Castle underwent 
a thorough renovation. In the battlement of the Lungess Tower may be 
seen a stone with the inscription, 

<E. R. 



1585 R. A: 

The first initials are, of course, those of the Queen ; the latter denote 
the High Sheriff' of the County in 1585 (Ralph Ashton, Esquire). The 
castle suffered greatly during the civil wars, and its history since that 
period has been simply that which attaches itself to it as the County Gaol 
and Debtors' Prison. 

" The history of the political and criminal trials of which Lancaster 
Castle has been the theatre, would make a most bulky but interesting 
volume." 

To speak of the castle as it is, the structure occupies an elevated situation 
to the west of the town. It is come at either by a steep ascent from the 
higher end of Market-street, or by the Church steps from Church-street, 
which also conduct to the Church yard. The approach from Market- 
street gives the best idea of the commanding position of the castle. The 
Gateway tower is here seen in all its picturesque and compact beauty. 
The interior of the Gateway tower contains the Governor's office, and 
an apartment in which are preserved arms and ammunition, fetters, hand- 
cuffs, &c. During the shock of an earthquake on the morning of March 
17, 1843, which was severely felt in many of the northern provinces, the 
fetters and other prison implements in the Gateway tower clanked against 
each other with great violence. 

The first view of the interior of the Court is grand and imposing. 
Before is the huge square Lungess tower, looking like a pile hewn square 
from the solid rock. The various modern prison buildings to the right 
and left, with their smooth and solid masonry and architectural disposition, 
are seen to great advantage from the castle yard, which contains a fine 
open area of 2800 square yards. Most of the buildings abutting on the 
castle yard are modern, and date from 1788, when the castle was enlarged 
and improved under the authority of an act for improving prisons. 



LANCASTER CASTLE. 87 

The Great Tower is of enormous strength. A winding staircase of low 
narrow stone steps at the S.W. angle of the Great Tower leads to apart- 
ments occupied by the male crown prisoners. The old Shire Hall, a lofty 
and spacious room with a deeply recessed window and strong iron bars, is 
contained in the Great Tower, and is now used as an hospital. The old 
Crown Court is west of the debtors' arcade and rooms, and is now occu- 
pied by the Duchy Court and Council Room. Adjoining it are two 
apartments of great size and height called the Howard and Han way 
rooms, used for sleeping rooms for the better conducted felons, and well 
ventilated. The modern portions of these buildings were erected in 
1793. 

The winding staircase before mentioned conducts to the summit of 
the Great Tower. The only turret of this tower remaining is one called 
John o'Gaunt's chair. The view from this commanding elevation is thus 
depicted by the poetic pencil of the authoress of the " Mysteries of 
Udolpho." " Overlooking the Lune and its green slopes, the eye ranges 
to the bay of the sea beyond, and to the Cumberland and Lancashire 
mountains. On an island near the extremity of the peninsula of Furness, 
the double point of Peel Castle stands up from the sea, but is so distant 
that it resembles a forked rock. This peninsula, which separates the 
bay of Ulverstone from the Irish channel, swells gradually into a pointed 
mountain called Black Combe, thirty miles from Lancaster, the first in 
the amphitheatre that binds the bay. Hence a range of lower, but more 
broken and forked summits, extends northwards to the fells of High 
Furness, rolled behind each other — huge, towering, and dark; then, 
higher still, Langdale Pikes, with a confusion of other fells that crown 
the head of Windermere and retire towards Keswick, whose gigantic 
mountains, Hellvellyn and Saddleback, are, however, sunk in the distance, 
below the horizon of the nearer ones. The top of Skiddaw may be dis- 
cerned when the air is clear, but is too far off to appear with dignity. 
From Windermere Fells the heights soften towards the vale of Lonsdale, 
on the east side of which Ingleborough rears his rugged front, the loftiest 
and most majestic in the scene. The nearer country from this point of 
the landscape is intersected with cultivated hills, between which the Lune 
wends its bright but shallow stream, falling over a weir, and passing 
under a very handsome stone bridge at the entrance of the town, in its 
progress to the sea. A ridge of rocky eminences shelters Lancaster on 
the east, whence they decline into the low and uninteresting country 
that stretches to the channel." 

On the east side of the castle, near the vestiges of Adrian's Tower, is 
the Record office of the duchy and county palatine. The apartment in 



88 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND 

this tower in which the archives of the county are kept is called John 
o'Gaunt's Oven, and is thirty-eight feet high. 

The new Crown and County Courts on the north-west and north sides 
of the castle next claim attention. They are approached by a beautiful 
terrace of stone, and present an extensive frontage of modern Gothic 
architecture. The Crown Court is a square and lofty Hall, which will 
contain 1500 persons. 

The Shire Hall and Nisi Prius Court is a most elegant structure. It 
is formed by the moiety of a space of fourteen equal sides. The roof 
is supported by seven clustered columns of four single shafts each, which 
spread into Gothic arches of great lightness and beauty. The ceiling is 
of open stone work. Here, as in the Crown Court, the body of the Court 
is raised along the whole breadth by broad steps. The east side of the 
Hall is ornamented by an alcove of tracery-work, terminating in finials, 
foliage, and miniature turrets. 

The Castle terrace is a delightful promenade, with a solid stone pave- 
ment always clean and dry, and overlooking a romantic combination of 
land and water, bay and mountain. Beneath the raised stone terrace are 
a lower terrace and parade, containing a lawn and a few young trees. 
The latter terrace and the Church yard are a favourite promenade, which, 
in point of beauty, few towns can equal. 

The book from which we borrow, thus very sagely remarks as to tbe 
fact of Lancaster Castle being preserved for the purposes of a seat of 
justice, a use certainly not unworthy of its former greatness : 

" Some writers, who yet allow that Lancaster Castle is one of the 
finest objects in the kingdom, are perverse enough to complain of the 
integrity and usefulness of the structure. In the place of these magnificent 
towers, occupying a commanding site, and conveying the idea of vast 
strength, they would have ruined walls and crumbling battlements over- 
grown by ivy, and speaking of partial demolition and decay. Such are 
not our notions of the requirements of the picturesque, nor will they be 
those of the majority of intelligent visitors. The associations of baronial 
splendor — of feudal haughtiness — of princely hospitality — and of the pomp 
and circumstance of chivalry — are recalled much more vividly by those 
seemingly impregnable walls, than by any of the broken lines and dis- 
mantled battlements of those who hold that 

Beauty never dwells 
Till use is exiled. 

" Long, therefore, may the proud Norman Keep, the magnificent Gate- 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 89 

way, and the rest of those ducal towers rear their mighty heads, untouched 
by the tooth of time or of neglect." 

So say we : and long may they continue to be graced, if not by 
sovereignty itself, then by that ermined majesty of England, which wields 
the sword and poises the balance of Justice in a manner unrivalled at any 
time by any other country of the universe. 



f&arefoootf Cattle, gor&sf)t«. 

This picturesque and interesting ruin possesses peculiar claims on the 
attention of the antiquary, as well on account of its extreme antiquity 
and curious reminiscences, as in consequence of the remarkable fact, of 
its having uninterruptedly continued in the possession of the lineal de- 
scendants of the original grantee, Robert de Romelli, (who received 
this fair domain, together with its numerous manors, and dependent lord- 
ships, as well as all Craven and Richmond, from the immediate gift of the 
Conqueror), until the year 1654, when Robert de Rythre removed from 
Harewood Castle to the Isle of Axholme, in Lincolnshire. 

The untimely death of the "boy of Egremond/' in the river Wharfe, 
on the memory of which "the poet's pen" has set the impress of immor- 
tality, ^constitutes an incident in every way calculated to lend an additional 
interest to the — 

" streams and dells, 
Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, lake," 

surrounding this " chiefless castle," and to invest with a melancholy charm, 
those 

" Gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells." 

Other consequences were also the result of that event ; on the Lady Avicia 
de Romelli, sister of the " boy of Egremond," devolved, as sole heir, the 
vast possessions of Robert de Romelli, in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, &c. This 
"well-dowered dame ; ' married William de Meschines, nephew of the 
Conqueror, brother of the Earl of Chester, and Lord of Coupland, and 
other places ; the result of which union, was the birth of two daughters, 
between whom, as coheirs, the ancestral estates were ultimately divided. 
The younger of these, the Lady Cecilia, married into the Royal Family of 
Scotland, whilst the elder, Avicia, Lady of Harewood, Skipton, &c, car- 
ried her moiety to her husband, Warine FitzGerald, eldest son of Warine 



90 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

FitzGerald, Chamberlain to Henry the First ; from a younger son of 
whom, the Ducal House of Leinster, in Ireland, is derived. The line of 
FitzGerald terminated in an heiress, through whose marriage with Lord 
de Courci, Baron of Stoke Courci, Harewood passed into that family, the 
eldest branch of which, also being finally represented by an heiress, who 
intermarried with Lord de Lisle, of Rougemont, the castle became the 
principal residence of his lordship's descendants. This Lord de Lisle was 
remarkable, as being one of the first Knights of the Garter. His lordship's 
heiress, Elizabeth de Lisle, having married William, Lord Aldeburgh, 
who was summoned to the House of Lords, in 1373, Harewood Castle 
became the residence of that family. Edward Baliol, King of Scotland, 
having about this time been driven out of his own dominions, was, 
throughout a considerable period, most kindly welcomed and hospitably 
entertained at Harewood Castle, by his kinsman, Lord Aldeburgh, in 
commemoration of which event, and also of the consanguinity of trie 
parties, Lord de Aldeburgh caused the royal arms of Baliol to be elabo- 
rately sculptured, and placed over the principal entrance of the castle, in 
immediate proximity with those of Aldeburgh. His lordship's only son, 
Sir William de Aldeburgh, dying in the lifetime of his father, and with- 
out issue, Harewood Castle, with its numerous lordships and manors, de- 
volved on his daughters, Sybilla and Elizabeth, the former of whom 
became Lady de Rythre, having married Sir William de Rythre, of Rythre 
Castle, Yorkshire, the lineal descendant and representative of William, 
Lord de Rythre, who was summoned to Parliament in 1297. Sir William 
and Lady de Rythre, by a deed, executed in the 15th of Richard II., con- 
veyed certain lands, in their manors of Kyrkeby Orblawers, and Kereby, 
in Nottinghamshire, to the Monastery of Beauvale, in the same county, for 
the appointment of two priests to sing masses daily, and for ever, for the 
souls of themselves and their descendants, and also for the soul of their 
relation, Edw T ard Baliol, King of Scotland. Lord Aldeburgh's other 
daughter, Elizabeth, married first, Sir Bryan Stapleton, second son of Lord 
Stapleton, of Bedal, co. York, and his wife, Agnes, only child and heir of 
Lord Fitzalan. This marriage was unproductive of issue. Her ladyship 
married, secondly, Sir R. Redmayne, and had issue, a son. Between the 
descendants of these sisters, the De Aldeburgh peerage fell into abeyance 
until, on the extinction of Lady Redmayne's descendants, it became vested 
exclusively in the representative of Lady de Rythre. The subjoined ex- 
tract, from Thoresby's Leeds, may not prove uninteresting. " These un- 
fortunate Saxons falling into the immediate grasp of the Conqueror, lost 
their chance of compounding for an inferior tenure under a new grantee, 
and appear to have been wholly disseised of this fair domain of Hare- 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 91 

wood. At the time of the Domesday Survey, there was neither church 
nor castle here, but the erection of both is attributable most unquestion- 
ably to Robert de Romelli, the first grantee from the Conqueror. The 
first notice of the former, however, appears in the grant of the Lady 
Avicia de Romelli to the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in York Cathe^- 
dral, and a Norman arched window, yet remaining, will carry up the date 
of that portion, at least, to the earliest period of the twelfth century. 
This is a fortunate place ; blessed with much beauty and fertility, and in 
the compass of a country village, with an entire, though dismantled castle, 
surrounded by a wide extent of plantations and pleasure grounds, and a 
parish church, filled with unmutilated sculpture of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries. But one portion of the place is fraught with interest 
to the lover of genius and of virtue ; for while the long series of the 
Lords of Harewood produced nothing but ordinary knights and barons, 
who fought, and hunted, and died, and were forgotten, Gawthorpe was 
the patrimonial residence of Chief Justice Sir William Gascoigne, and the 
favorite retreat of his illustrious but unfortunate descendant the Earl of 
Strafford. The following quotation will demonstrate what delight the 
place was capable of affording to that great man, before the charms of 
ambition had seduced him from the better occupations and sincerer plea- 
sures of a country life ; had he never abandoned his pleasure grounds, 
lakes, gardens, and fish-ponds, he would have died indeed, a country 
gentleman, but probably, in a good old age, and in the course of nature." 

" Sir Thomas Wentworth, to Sir George Calvert, principal Secretary of 
State. 

" Our harvest is all in ; a most fine season to make fish-ponds ; our plums are 
all gone and past ; peaches, quinces, and grapes almost fully ripe, which will, I 
know, hold better relish with a Thistleworth palate. These only, we country 
gentlemen muse of, hoping, in such harmless retirement, for a just defence from 
the higher powers, and possessing ourselves in contentment, pray with Dryope, 
in the poet — 

4 Et si qua est pietas ab acutae vulnere falcis 
Et pecoris morsu frondes defendite nostras.' 

« Gawthorpe, Aug. 31, 1634." 

I shall begin with the castle and its lords. This once singularly fine 
and stately edifice stands on the steep slope of the hill, rising southwards, 
to which the lower floors are adapted. The principal entrance has been 
from the north-east, and beneath a square turret, adorned with the shields 
of De Aldeburgh and Baliol, a compliment from Lord de Aldeburgh to his 
royal kinsman, Edward Baliol, whom his lordship protected and enter- 
tained here, when driven out of his own dominions in Scotland. On the 



92 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

occasion of the sojourn here of the King, Lord Aldeburgh provided a 
costly service of gold and silver vessels, on which were inscribed certain 
sentences in the Latin language, commemorative of the royal exile's resi- 
dence at Harewood Castle. The walls of the great hall were decorated 
with expensive hangings, and portraits of his lordship's ancestors, Lords of 
Harewood, chiefly done by Italian masters, whilst silver lamps, fed with 
fragrant oils from the Levant, were tastefully pendant from the ceiling 
and profusely disposed amongst the hangings. Finely trained steeds, and 
hounds of divers kinds, also contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of the 
illustrious guest ; nor did the anxious concernment of the host confine 
itself to things temporal ; the spiritual welfare of his Majesty was attended 
to with like care, as appears by the institution of two priests at the 
Monastery of Beauvale, to sing masses for the soul of Edward Baliol, by Sir 
William de Rythre, the heir and son-in-law of his lordship. 

Between the shields of Aldeburgh and Baliol is the predestinarian 
motto of the founder in black letters, "Wat Sal be Sal." A beautifully 
sculptured apartment over the space between the outer and inner doorway 
of this tower has been the domestic oratory, richly adorned with shields 
and arms. The great hall, which is of the most ample dimensions, is ren- 
dered extremely remarkable by a recess near the upper end of the west 
wall, which has almost every appearance of a tomb contemporary with the 
building, and a tomb it has been repeatedly affirmed to be. But of whom ? 
Of the founder, certainly, if it were a tomb at all ; yet is he known to 
have been interred in the parish church; besides, whoever dreamed in 
those days of being buried in un consecrated earth ; or, what heir would 
have permitted so incongruous a circumstance in a scene of conviviality ? 
Besides, the original slab has been removed, and, instead of a stone coffin, 
nothing appears but a mass of solid grout-work, while, instead of kneeling 
figures of priests or children, beneath is discovered, on a sort of frieze, a 
light and elegant enrichment of vine leaves and grapes. 

From the last circumstance, combined with its situation at the head of 
the high table, it would appear to have been an ancient side -board. The 
union of Gawthorpe and Harewood has never been distinctly accounted 
for ; Gawthorpe being in the township of Harewood, and never enume- 
rated amongst the mesne manors dependent on the honor, does not appear 
to have been a manor at all, but merely a portion of Harewood. But it 
gave name and residence to a family, whose heirs brought it to the Gas- 
coignes, in which name it continued till another heiress brought it to the 
name of Wentworth ; this lady was mother of Sir Thomas Wentworth, 
afterwards Earl of Strafford. 

However, the evidence of various inquisitions clearly demonstrates that 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 93 

Gawthorpe was a subinfeudation of Harewood, held by the Gascoignes 
from the Lord de Lisle, Lord Aldeburgh, and subsequently from the De 
Rythres, the heirs and lineal representatives of those noble families ; hold- 
ing, as has been shewn, by subinfeudation, the Gascoignes were con- 
sequently vassals of the De Rythres and their ancestors during several 
centuries. 

The Gascoignes appear to have been a prudent, thriving, and circum- 
spect" family ; the De Rythres, generous, hospitable, unsuspicious, and con- 
fiding, and as a natural effect of such conduct, the vassal, as in many other 
instances, ultimately supplanted the lord ; for at the time when the fee of 
Gawthorpe vested in the heiress of the Gascoignes, and through that lady 
in her son the Earl of Strafford, the male line of the De Rythres was sur- 
viving. 

Robert De Rythre, the last of the name who inhabited Harewood Castle, 
appears from an inquisition to have been aged twenty-one years, A° 38 
Elizabeth. In 1634 he finally removed from this stately habitation of his 
ancient and lordly line, and retired to the isle of Axholme, in Lincjlnshire, 
one of the hereditary estates of the family, where he died in 1637, 
aged 87. 

It is a singular fact, that after the intermarriage of the two co-heirs of 
Lord Aldeburgh with Sir William De Rythre and Sir R. Redmayne, 
respectively, the two families thus united, during eight descents of the one 
and nine of the other, seem to have lived on such cordially intimate and 
friendly terms, that they not only kept the estate undivided, but inhabited 
the castle alternately, and not unfrequently together. Throughout this 
very lengthened period, Rythre Castle, near Selby, with its lordly depen- 
dencies and valuable manors, including the broad and fertile lands of Scar- 
croft, remained in possession of that family. 

The entire succession of the hereditary lords of Harewood from the 
period of the Conqueror, is distinctly exhibited and deduced with the 
greatest accuracy in the elaborate pedigree hereunto annexed; heralds' 
visitations, and successive inquisitions, together with numerous records of 
the most authentic nature, form the materials out of which it has been 
constructed. The De Rythre arms repeatedly occur in sculpture and 
stained glass. In the great hall they were formerly exhibited with the 
following quarterings, and are still extant in the church of Harewood : — 
1st, azure, three crescents or ; 2nd, argent, eight cross crosslets rich e, in 
centre a lion's head erased azure ; 3rd, gules, a cross vaire flory, argent 
and azure ; 4th, gules, a lion rampant argent, charged on the shoulders 
Avith a fleur-de-lis, azure ; 5th, or, a fesse between two chevron s sa ; 6th 
lozengy, argent and gules ; 7th, ermine, a chevron gules, charged with 



94 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

three shells argent ; 8th, azure, three crescents or. Harewood Manor, 
when in possession of the De Rythre family, had annexed to it the fol- 
lowing manors, lordships, honors, and dependencies :— Gawthorpe, Wyke, 
East Keswick, Hetheric, Weardley, Wiscoe-Hill, Barton, Leonard, Thorpe- 
Ash, Loft-House Head, Stubbs, Tick-Hill, Sea-Croft, Ouston Balne, &c. 
In consequence of Sir Robert Aske, son-in-law of Sir Ralph De Rythre, 
having been implicated as leader in the insurrection termed the "Pilgrim- 
age of Grace," which occurred in the year 1536, and had for its object the 
re-establishment of the Roman Catholic religion, and in which the leading 
nobility and gentry of Yorkshire and other counties had almost universally 
participated, a very large proportion of the De Rythre estates underwent 
confiscation, although it would appear that Sir Robert Aske was merely in 
possession of them as trustee for his brother-in-law, Henry De Rythre, 
who was then an infant. Yet in these days of arbitrary power the injus- 
tice was submitted to, although the lands were, and in all probability still 
are, reclaimable by the lineal heir and representative of the De Rythres. 

On the suppression of the insurrection, Sir Robert Aske was executed, 
drawn and quartered, at York ; Sir Thomas Percy, son of the earl of 
Northumberland, together with many other persons of rank and distinction 
were subjected to a similarly unhappy fate. It may not be uninteresting 
to introduce here the advertisement by which this fine property was 
recommended to public notice. It will serve to convey some idea of its 
nature and extent, and also to exhibit the difference which obtains be- 
tween the unpretending and unexaggerated productions of those times and 
the puff of a modern auctioneer. This occurred shortly after the death of 
the unfortunate Earl of Strafford, into whose possession it had come 
through the instrumentality of the causes already detailed, namely, the 
cunning and gradual encroachments of his maternal ancestors, the Gas- 
coignes, on their confiding and improvident lords, the De Rythres, and the 
effects consequent on the attainder of Sir Robert Aske. This occurrence 
took place shortly after the removal of Robert de Rythre to Axholme, when, 
for the first time, Harewood Castle ceased to be the residence of an here- 
ditary proprietor, after having been, throughout a period of more than six 
centuries, uninterruptedly the principal seat of an unbroken line of here- 
ditary knights and nobles. 

" 10th Novemb r 1656. 

" A particular of the Castle and manor of Harwood, conteyneinge the de- 
pendency of Gawthorpe, and divers lands, tenement Hereditam ts > hereafter 
mentioned, in the Co. of York. 

" The Castle Decayed ; 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 95 

" The seigniory of great extent, though formerly greater before the out-parts 
thereof were cut off. 

" The castle of Harwood decayed, yet the stones thereof being much ashler, 
and the timber that is left fit for building an hansom new house, &c, may save 
a deale of charges in the stone work, or (else if allowed to the tenants of Har- 
wood towne for repairs and buildinge) would be very useful and necessary for 
that purpose, considering it is a market towne. Therefore the castle may be 
adjudged to be well worth £100. There is belonging to the same a very large 
barne. 

" There is a charter obtaeined by Sir William de Rythre for a market to be 
held every Monday in this towne of Harewood. 2 head faires, besides a fort- 
night faire in summer tyme ; which if well managed might bring in tyme the 
market to a good height. There is a mannor of great extent, with court leet 
and court baron, waives and estrayes and Felon goods, &c, belonging to the 
same, also large commons ; the whole well stored with all kinds of Wild Fowles ; 
the river of Wharfe affording greate store of Fishe, as salmon, trout, chevins, 
oremus, and eyles. The lord of the mannor being the Impropriat r hath the 
presentation of the vicar to the vicarridge. In the groundes contained in this 
particular there is great store of timber trees, and wood besides the hedgerows, 
and besides wood to bee left for the repayer of Houses and mill dams worth at least 
<£2000. The opinion of divers is that all the wood contained in this particular 
is worth £3000. The stank or pond att Hollin Hall is well stored with carp, 
and eyles. The stank or pond att Gawthorpe with trout, roch, gudgeons, and 
eyles. Gawthorpe Hall most part of the walls built with good stone, and all 
the houses covered with slate and a great part of that new building. Four 
rooms in the oulde buildings all waynscotted. Five large rooms in the new 
building all waynscotted likewise, and collored like wall tree. The matereals of 
which house if soulde would raise £600 at leaste. To this belongeth a parke 
in former tymes well stored with deere ; a park like place it is with a brooke 
running through the middle of it, which turns four pair of mill stones att 2 
milles. Upon the river of Wharfe there is a corn mill with 2 pair of milstones, 
the dam of which was almost all made new laste yeare and cost near unto £100. 
There is a garden and orchards about 6 acres in compasse, fenced round with 
high stone walles. The garden towards the north side hath four walles lying 
one above another ; both the gardens and orchards well planted with great store 
of fruit trees of several kindes. The court leet and court Baron att present ex- 
tend over the following townships — Harewood, East Keswick, Wyke, Wigton* 
Weardley, Weeton cum Westcoe Hill, Dunkeswick." 

The church of Harewood having been given by the lady Avicia de 
Romelli to the chapel of St. Mary, in York Cathedral, the donation was 
contested by Warine Fitz Gerald, who had married her grand-daughter. 
This was in the 10th of John, 1209, and appears to have been successful; 
but in the year 1353, Lord de Lisle of Rougemont, considering that his an- 



06 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

cestors, Lords of Harewood, had been benefactors to the priory of Bolton in 
Craven, gave the advowson of this church to that house, on condition that 
they should grant'to him and his heirs a rent charge of 100/. per annum, out 
of Howden, Wigton, and other lands; and that a chantry of six priests 
(differing from a college only in the terms of the incorporation) should be 
founded at Harewood, and seven at the priory of Bolton, to sing masses 
daily for the souls of Robert Lord de Lisle, his father, and Margaret 
Lady de Lisle, his mother, besides a special collect for himself, his children, 
and his lineal heir or representative, in every generation for ever. A benefice 
which could sustain such a charge, must have been very opulent indeed. 
The advowson of the vicarage was vested in the prior and canons of Bolton 
until the dissolution, when it appears to have returned to his lordship's 
hereditary successors, the De Rythres, Lords of Harewood. The present 
church surpasses any parish church in the county, in the number, beauty, 
and perfect preservation of the tombs of its lords ; those which exhibit the 
greatest taste, and most elaborate sculpture, belong to the De Rythre 
family, with regard to whom this curious particular is observable, namely, 
that for some centuries after 1370, they had sepulture alternately here 
and in Rythre church. The most interesting tomb, independently of the 
mere merits of the structure, is that of Sir William Gascoigne of Gaw- 
thorpe, on which he is represented in his scarlet robes, with his coif cover- 
ing his head as of old, and an antique purse at his girdle ; the effigy of 
Elizabeth, his wife, is also exhibited ; she was the daughter of Sir William 
Mowbray, of Kirklington. A brass fillet surrounding the tomb, which 
was torn away during the civil wars, bore the following inscription : — 

" Hie jacent Willielmus Gascoigne, nup. cap. just, de Banco Hen. nup. Regis 
Angliae quarti. Et Elizabetha uxor ejus qui quidem W ob. die dominica IV. 
die decembris anno dni M.CCCC.XII.XIV. Henricis IV. factus judex. 
M.CCCC.I." 

Opposite to this is the truly magnificent tomb of Sir William de Rythre, 
and his wife Sybilla, the daughter and coheir of Lord de Aldeburgh ; the 
statues of these, which are finely sculptured, are cumbent and nearly entire. 
The monument of the Redmayne family is also in a very high state of 
preservation. The figure of Lord de Lisle, an ancestor of the De Rythres, 
distinguished by the armorial bearings of his family, a fess between two 
chevrons, exhibited on his tabard, was perfectly entire, in the east window 
of the north chapel, until the church was repaired in 1 793, when it was 
removed to a lumber room in Harewood House, and forgotten. On a 
subsequent search it could nowhere be found. This circumstance is very 
much to be regretted, as, independently of the merits which it possessed as 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 97 

a work of art,, a very considerable degree of interest must necessarily have 
attached to it, not only through the consideration of its high antiquity, 
but on account of his lordship having been the first Knight of the Garter, 
and one of the most munificent benefactors of the church itself. The west 
end of the church opened into the former pleasure grounds of Harewood 
Castle. It is kept with the neatness of a Cathedral, and seems to have 
suffered principally by the removal of the screens and lattices, a proceeding 
which sadly interferes with the religious solemnity of the scene. Another 
innovation, the bad taste of which cannot be sufficiently condemned, 
occurred in the destruction of the gorgeous canopy, which heretofore 
formed a most appropriate sepulchral appendage to the tombs of the De 
Rythres. " Instead, however, of deploring what is gone in compliance with 
the rage of tasteless innovation, there is more cause to rejoice on account of 
what remains, and it is to be hoped that these beautiful memorials of the 
De Rythres and Gascoignes will long be preserved, ranking as they do 
amongst the most valuable and interesting remnants of ancient art." 

In the Gentleman's Magazine the following lines occur ; they appear to 
have • been written in deprecation of the intended removal of Robert de 
Rythre, or Ryther, from Harewood Castle to his estate of Axholme in 
Lincolnshire. They are but a fragment of the poem, and remarkable for 
the partial realization of the prophecy which they embody — 

" Whilst over proud Harewood De Rythre holds sway, 
His sun shall not set, nor his grandeur decay ; 
But if from the hall of his fathers he goes, 
There 's ruin to him, and success to his foes ; 
Then let him remain, nor to others give place, 
Lest Gascoigne, his vassal, should whelm his race — 
His honors, his name, his proud lordships, and all 
Shall stand if he stays — if he goes they shall fall ; 
Whilst a century doubled and more, shall roll by, 
Ere to heir of his name its lost honors shall hie." 

In the manuscripts of the Cottonian library, a very curious and original 
letter of James Rythre to the Earl of Sussex, is preserved. It bears date 
at Harewood, January 6th, 1569-70, and is thus marked and described: 
" Cal. B. IX. 250. James de Rythre to the Earl of Sussex, about several 
seizures of property on the borders (orig.)" 

It appears by a confirmation charter of Henry II., that a Sir William de 
Rythre, of Rythre Castle, was then Chancellor of England. This per- 
sonage held very considerable possessions in Yorkshire and other counties 
per Baroniam. 

H 



98 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Sir Hamelin de Rythre, grandson of the former, and also a baron by 
tenure, is referred to in a deed, executed by his son, Sir William de 
Ry thre ; this deed appears to have been dated a few years subsequent to 
1228, and conveys certain lands to the church of St. Peter, in York. It 
is entitled, " Carta Willielmi Filii Hamelini de Rythre, vel Ridera, chiv/' 
and, independently of its curious structure and form, it is interest- 
ing as shewing concurrence in brothers of the same name ; a practice 
sometimes permitted when a desire to preserve an ancient or loved family 
name sought to increase the charms of its retention by the adoption of 
the means to which reference has been made. Sir William, father of 
Sir Hamelin, conveyed by deed the church of Rythre to the Priory of Nun- 
Appleton, in the reign of Richard I. In the confirmation charter of King 
John the donation is thus described : " Exodno Willielmi de Rythre militis 
ecclesiam de Rythre cum omnibus pertinentiis suis." His name, and that 
of his daughter Agnes, occur as witnesses to a deed conveying other grants 
to the same priory. 

In the church of Rythre this family had sepulture antecedently to their 
acquisition of the Harewood estates, and occasionally afterwards. It is in 
the Ainsty of York, and contains in the south aisle, a series of monuments, 
of which the following description is extracted from " The Sepulchral 
Monuments of Great Britain." " The first is a cross-legged knight (that 
position being the badge of a crusader) in a round helmet, with a rib down 
the front, mail gorget and sleeves, with wrist-bands, mail gloves, greaves 
and shoes; sword straight from middle of waist; on his shield three cres- 
cents, De Rythre ; a lion at his feet. By his side, on a distinct slab (both 
slabs laid on brickwork), a lady in a cap, the cape of her gown up to her 
chin, and behind her head, and falling at her ears, long straight-buttoned 
sleeves, and others pendant ; her mantle faced with fur, and a dog at her 
feet. The knight represents Sir William Lord De Rythre, who accompanied 
Edward the First, in his twenty-fifth year, in his expedition into Gascoigne, 
and the year following, and three more, into Scotland, in all of which wars 
he greatly distinguished himself by his martial daring and knightly accom- 
plishments, and who was summoned to Parliament from twenty-eighth 
Edward I. to second Edward II. The lady represents his wife. At their 
head is an alabaster knight in plaited armour, his hair straight in front, 
curled at sides ; mitten gauntlets, straps at elbows, gorget of mail, his collar 
fastened by a heart, from which hangs a lion, sword, and dagger, collared 
dog under right foot, and under left a bearded head, open mouthed; under 
his head a helmet, the crest gone. His body has the rich reticulated mitred 
head-dress, with a jewel in front ; angels support her cushions ; in her hands 
a heart. She wears long sleeves, a plaited petticoat ; the hem of her gar- 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 99 

ment is studded ; at her feet a flap-eared dog with a studded collar. On 
the north front of the tomb, in four pair of niches, four knights in plaited 
armour ; the fourth in a mantle, holds in his left hand a shield resembling 
that of St. George, his right hand lifted up, or on his sword. Four ladies 
with the mitred head-dresses, fillet in front, and veil behind, hold the same 
shields ; one has a book open over it ; two have their right hands elevated 
and open ; the third holds in her right hand a rosary. At the west end 
are three such ladies ; and at the east end three such knights. This tomb 
has a ledge. This is the monument of John second Lord De Rythre, and 
son and successor of William ; he was governor of Skipton castle, second 
Edward II. His lady was sister of Guy Earl of Warwick, of the family of 
Beauchamp. At the head of the last tomb is one more ancient, with a blue 
slab, whose ledge has labels of the scroll form, and on the south side of the 
tomb a shield with three crescents. This probably is the tomb of Sir 
Hamelin de Rythre, who accompanied Richard Cceur De Lion to the wars 
of the Crusades. In the east window of the south aisle (which probably 
was the chantry chapel) are azure, three crescents, or. Rythre. In the east 
window of the chancel are azure, three crescents, or. ; and a good figure 
of a woman's head praying, and ' Qui me istius ecclesiae fieri fecit.' In the 
north window lions segant or, and azure, and the arms of Rythre." Sir 
William de Rythre, to whom allusion has been made, married Ella, daughter 
of Sir William Fitzwilliam ; her mother was Ella, daughter of William de 
Warren, Earl of Surrey, who was descended from Gundred, daughter of 
William the Conqueror ; her mother was Maud, daughter of the Earl of 
Flanders, and granddaughter of Robert King of France. John second Lord 
de Rythre was succeeded by his son Robert, whose son and heir, Sir Wil- 
liam, married the only child of Sir William Tunstal, of Holdemene, from 
which marriage sprang Sir William, who married Sybil, daughter and co- 
heir of Lord de Aldburgh of Harewood Castle ; their son, Sir William de 
Rythre of Harewood Castle, was lord of Scarcroft and high sheriff of York- 
shire in the seventh and ninth of Henry VI. He married Matilda, daughter 
of Sir Thomas Umfraville of Harbottle Castle, co. Northampton, and co-heir 
of her brother, Gilbert de Umfraville, fourth Earl of Angus. Sir William 
died in 1441, and Lady de Rythre in 1435. They had two sons, Sir Wil- 
liam and Gilbert. Sir William married Eleanor, daughter of Sir John 
Fitzwilliam, of Sprotburgh, and dying in 1476, was buried at De Rythre 
church. His surviving issue were Sir Ralph, Thomas, and Nicholas, who 
settled at Scarcroft, where his descendants, who, it is presumed, became ulti- 
mately extinct, resided for several generations. Sir Ralph, the eldest son, 
married Lady Katherine Percy, only daughter of Henry, fifth Earl of Nor- 
thumberland, and dying at a very advanced age, was succeeded by his only 

H 2 



100 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

son, Henry de Rythre, who married Agnes, only daughter of John Lord 
Hussey, and died without issue in 1 543. Thomas, second son of Sir Wil- 
liam and Lady de Rythre, held the high court appointment of cofferer to 
Edward IV. ; he was attainted in 1483, but restored in blood in 1485. He 
left two sons, George and Thomas. William, eldest son of George, was 
esquire of the body to Queen Mary, and succeeded at Harewood on the 
death of his cousin Henry de Rythre, in 1 543. He married Mary, daughter 
of Sir James Hales, and dying in 1563, was succeeded by his son James, 
who was esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth ; his lady was Elizabeth, 
daughter of William Atherton, Esq., of Atherton. Robert, his only son, 
was born in 1631, and died in 1692, when he was succeeded by his only son, 
Robert de Rythre, barrister at-law, who died in 1698, having bequeathed 
his estates to his sixth cousin, John de Rythre of Scarcroft, he being the 
nearest relation of whom he had any knowledge ; in this will he settled the 
estates on the name, in the strictest manner permitted by the laws of entail. 
Alluding to the subject he uses the following words : " In order that a por- 
tion of the vast estates which belonged to our extravagant ancestors may 
be preserved in our ancient family." Thomas de Rythre, second son of the 
cofferer, settled at Muccleston, in Staffordshire, and married Rachel, 
daughter of Henry Pole, or Poole, Esq. ; his eldest son Edward settled at 
Carrington, in Cheshire, where John, only son of Edward, was born. About 
this time, it would appear, that the practice of pronouncing the surname, 
Ryder, was introduced ; as we find the ancient and modern orthography 
indifferently employed in reference to this John de Rythre, Ryther, or 
Ryder, in the university entries. He received his education at Jesus Col- 
lege, Oxford, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts on the 3rd Feb- 
ruary, 1580, and that of Master on the 5th of July, 1583, shortly after 
which he obtained the living of St. Mary, Bermondsey, to which the 
crown had presentation ; about this time he compiled his celebrated Eng- 
lish and Latin Dictionary, to which he added more than four thousand 
words, which were not to be found in the most copious dictionaries then 
extant. This work was published at Oxford, in quarto, which, says Mr. 
Ryder, in his preface, " I have not done without great pains and charges." 
In this undertaking, however, he received considerable assistance from the 
exertions of his friend, the Earl of Sussex. The book was universally 
regarded by the learned as an invaluable contribution to English literature, 
and elicited many very nattering compliments in Greek and Latin verse, 
some of which are prefixed to the work. That of Dr. Underhill is as 
follows: — 

" Quantum Thomasio Calepinus cedere debet 
Tantum praeclaro Thomasius ipse Rydero." 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 101 

When the rich living of Winwick, in Lancashire, became vacant, he was 
presented to it by the patron, William, Earl of Derby, between whom and 
Mr. Ryder a family connexion subsisted. Possessing a sort of hereditary 
interest at court, and being moreover a great personal favourite of Eliza- 
beth, he was, in obedience to Her Majesty's commands, elected Dean of St. 
Patrick's, in the year 1597« The following letter of Archbishop Loftus, 
addressed to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, and written in reply to the mis- 
sive which the Queen had caused to be written, " requiring that John 
Ryder, A.M., should be elected to the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin," 
occurs in Strype's Ecclesiastical Annals. 

" It may please your Lordship, — Immediately after the receipt of your 
letter, signifying Her Majesty's pleasure and commandement, in the behalf of 
Mr. Ryder, to the Deanery of St, Patrick's, I assembled my chapiter, and made 
the same known unto them, whom I found humbly willing, according to Her 
Majesty's pleasure, to make election of him ; but forasmuch as they made a 
scruple to elect him until he were a member of themselves, which they alledge 
to be done by them in discharge of their consciences, being sworn to the form 
of this foundation, I have, to remove that scruple, reserved a prebend, now 
void, and in my gift, for Mr. Ryder, which presently, on his arrival here, I will 
admit him unto ; and have taken the hands of my chapiter thereupon to elect 
him, which I assure your Lordship, upon my credit (which I would not break 
with you for all the deaneries and bishopricks in Ireland), shall be done within 
ten days next after Mr. Ryder's coming. Whereunto I find my said chapiter the 
more willing (although there be among themselves as many learned Graduates 
as belong to any one Church that I knowe in England), because they acknowledge 
your Lordship to be a chief pillar for the upholding of the Church. And so, 
hoping that your Lordship will rest well satisfied for this time with the proceed- 
ings aforesaid, I commend you with all my prayers to God's blessing. 

" Your Lordship's humble servant at command, 

" Ad. Dublin. 
"From Dublin, 29th of November, 1597." 

Before Mr. Ryder left England, he was constrained to enter into an 
engagement with the Lord Treasurer, to continue, after his election and 
installation, the payment of three hundred marks per annum throughout 
the remainder of the term during which his predecessor, Meredith, 
would, had he lived, have been bound to pay the same. In conformity 
with this arrangement, Mr. Ryder executed a bond, and bound himself, 
in a penalty of £1000, to pay the sum of three hundred marks annually, 
for five years, from the first of April, 1598. This bond was cancelled on 
the 30th of September, 1602; the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, 
Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the Master of the Rolls, having 



102 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

signified that they had received full satisfaction from Dean Ryder. On 
the 16th March, 1598, the Dean was presented by the Crown to the 
rectory of Geashill, in the diocese of Kildare. The subjoined details 
of his controversy with Fitz Simon the Jesuit, are calculated to throw 
some illustration on the manners and peculiarities of the period, and 
to shew that the extension of the Dean's hospitality and friendly offices 
were perfectly uninterfered with by considerations having their origin 
in the rancorous debasement of bigotry, or festering asperities of 
s ectarianism. 

Henry Fitz Simon, the learned Jesuit, was not only the frequent 
recipient of Dean Ryder's hospitality, but indebted to his unceasing 
and benevolent exertions in his behalf for those comforts and that 
considerate indulgence which alleviated the rigours of a lengthened 
imprisonment, to which, in consequence of some grave political offence, 
he was subjected. The Dean ultimately enjoyed the satisfaction 
arising from the consciousness of having been instrumental in procuring 
for the Jesuit the restoration of his liberty, in virtue of an order of King 
James to the Lord Deputy and Council, dated 12th of March, 1603. 

Fitz Simon's tract was entitled "A Catholike confutation of Dean 
Ryder's clayme of Antiquitie, and a caulming comfort against his caveat ; 
in which is demonstrated, by assurances even of protestants, that al an- 
tiquitie, for al points of Religion, in controversie, is repugnant to 
protestancie : secondly, that protestancie is repugnant, particulate to all 
articles of beleefe : thirdly, that puritan plots are pernitious to Religion 
and state : and lastly, a reply e to Dean Ryder's rescript, with a discovery 
of puritan partialitie in his behalfe. By Henry Fitz Simon of Dublin, in 
Ireland, of the Societie of Jesus, Priest." 

The Jesuit, in his advertisement to the reader, says, " that the dispute 
between the dean and himself was occasioned by various table conversa- 
tions which happened from time to time at the deanery of St. Patrick's, 
but that it was more immediately referable to an argument which occurred 
on the 29th of November, in the year 1600, at the deanery, between Wil- 
liam Nugent, Esquire, a Roman Catholic gentleman of education and for- 
tune, and the dean. Mr. Nugent affirmed that there was no diversity of 
belief, or religion, between the modern Roman Catholics and the Primitive 
Christians of the apostolic times ; contrary to which assertion, the dean 
maintained that the difference was as great as between Protestancy and 
Papistry, and the faith of the Primitive Catholics was the same as that of 
Protestants; these opinions being very opposite, both parties agreed to 
seek a solution of the learned, which, if it should justify Mr. Nugent's per- 
suasion, then Mr. Ryder would recant ; if it did not, then Mr. Nugent 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 103 

would become a Protestant. To obtain the said solution, a letter was 
written by Mr. Ryder, dated on the 21st of the following October, and 
addressed from doubtful Catholics to all priests and Jesuits, and Semina- 
rists, requiring of them to shew whether the doctrines of the Primitive 
Christians did accord with that of modern Roman Catholics, in the follow- 
ing articles, viz. : — first, that the body of Christ is actually present in the 
blessed sacrament ; secondly, that the Scriptures should not be perused by 
the vulgar ; thirdly, that prayers for the dead, and the doctrine of purga- 
tory, ought to be credited ,* fourthly, that prayers should be addressed to 
saints ; fifthly, that the ceremonial of the mass did obtain in ancient times ; 
and sixthly, that the supremacy of the Pope was admitted and acknow- 
ledged." 

Mr. Nugent affirmed that the Jesuits and Roman Catholic priests of 
Ireland were able to prove, by the Scriptures and fathers, the affirmative 
of these several propositions to be doctrines apostolical and catholic, and 
that the church of Rome, and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, hold no 
opinion touching the same, but what the Holy Scriptures and primitive 
fathers held, within the first five hundred years after Christ's ascension. 
The answer to this appeal was required within three months ; and it was 
desired by both sides that Fitz Simon, who was then in confinement in 
Dublin Castle, should take on him to maintain this controversy. He ac- 
cordingly, on the second of January, sent his answer to Dean Ryder, 
by Michael Taylor, Esquire, written in the name of the Catholic priests of 
Ireland. The dean read the reply with a great deal of pleasure, and hav- 
ing expressed much satisfaction, promised to prepare a rejoinder to it very 
speedily. Four days afterwards he waited on Fitz Simon in the castle, 
informing him, that if his signature were subscribed to the treatise, the 
reply should soon be made ; the Jesuit consented, and on the 28th of Sep- 
tember, 1602, Mr. Ryder published his reply, a copy of which was forth- 
with transmitted to the Jesuit : it was entitled, "A Friendly Caveat/' &c. 
Having read this elaborate and very learned production with great care and 
attention, and occupied about three months in assiduous consideration of 
the various arguments therein contained, and the numerous authorities by 
which they were supported, Fitz Simon intimated to the dean, that if he 
would allow him access to books, a communication with his brethren, and 
an amanuensis to engross his writings, he would join issue with him, 
before the Lord Deputy and Council, and Fellows of the College of Dublin. 
Mr. Ryder cheerfully acquiesced in this proposal, and applying to the 
government in reference to the subject, obtained all the indulgence 
solicited, as to books, the intercourse of friends, and the printing-press. In 
addition to these favors, the dean supplied him with a catalogue of the 



104 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

books in the new library'of the university, all of which were at his com- 
mand without any hindrance or restriction whatsoever. Notwithstanding 
these facilities, however, the Jesuit's rejoinder did not make its appearance 
until after the lapse of many years, although several letters passed between 
them on the subject, both before and after his liberation, which, as has 
already been observed, was owing altogether to the benevolent interference 
of the dean. However, the Jesuit transmitted to Mr. Ryder certain obser- 
vations, written on about two reams of paper, of which his rejoinder, 
printed at Roan in l6'08, was a mere amplification. Having read these 
arguments very carefully, and shewed the production to many considerable 
persons, and to the fellows of the university, the dean very speedily pub- 
lished another book in reply, which caused^ avery considerable sensation, 
on account of the argumentative ingenuity and theological erudition by 
which it was characterised. After his enlargement, several private meet- 
ings took place between them, and according to the Jesuits' own account, a 
short time previously to that event, a disputation also occurred in the pre- 
sence of the constable of the castle, and some other personages of distinc- 
tion, after which the dean dined with his adversary and some other pri- 
soners. In page 210 of his " Catholike^Confutation," Fit? Simon says, 
that Dean Ryder had yearly 1 700 barrels of corn, idly and without price, 
as tithes of his deanery. In page 227> he relates the following anecdote : — 
" Whilst I was in confinement at the castle, I was taking the air on Saint 
Martin's eve on the north-west tower, when Dean Ryder came to visit one 
Mr. Browne, and I requested him to come up ; after some conversation, he 
asked me to inform him of a certain point which a great statesman had 
made dubious to him ; whether I was a Jesuit, or a priest, or both. I an- 
swered that I was unworthily both. He replied, would you prefer yourself 
before a simple secular priest ? I answered that I never had a controversy 
about pre-eminence with any. The dean seemed a little confounded with 
this answer. I then desired him to do me the favour of answering a like 
question ; whether himself was a bare^minister, a dean, or both ? He an- 
swered he was a minister, but not a dean according to my notion of the 
term. I answered, then you are a Puritan, inasmuch as you refuse the 
name of dean, but as you hold the deanery you are Protestant, which 
answer made him laugh very heartily." Fitz Simon's book, which is in 
the library of Trinity College, Dublin, contains certain marginal observa- 
tions, written in the dean's own manuscript, in which he emphatically 
contradicts this, as well as other assertions, charging him with entertaining 
Puritanical principles. 

In 1601, Mr. Ryder published his celebrated letter "Concerning the 
News out of Ireland, the Spaniards' Landing, and the present state 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 105 

thereof." On the 12th of January, 16'12, he was consecrated Bishop of 
Killaloe, and on the 4th of the following July, he obtained a dispensation 
from the archbishop, which was on the same day confirmed by King James 
the First, to hold the rich benefice of Winwick, Lancashire, in commendam 
with his bishopric, " Quoad vixerit et prefuerit." He died on the 12th of 
November, at Killaloe, and was buried there in St. Flannan's church. His 
lordship was the author of several books and treatises relating to various 
departments of literature, and displaying close research, extensive acquire- 
ments, and abilities of the very highest order ; his poetical productions 
were remarkable for point and elegance. He married Fridiswid, second 
daughter of Edward Crosby, Esquire, of Crosby Place, Staffordshire, and 
left an only son, Thomas, who was Secretary of Legation to the English 
embassy at Paris ; whilst so residing in the French capital, his sons Henry 
and Thomas were born there, the former of whom was educated at West- 
minster school, from whence he was admitted into Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, and afterwards to an ad eundem degree in Trinity College, Dublin ; 
his first promotion was to the prebend of Malahiddert, in the archdiocese of 
Dublin, after which he became Archdeacon of Ossory, from whence he 
was advanced to the see of Killaloe (which his grandfather had held) by 
letters patent, bearing date 5th of June, l6'93, and consecrated on Trinity 
Sunday following, in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, in the diocese 
of Meath, by Narcissus, Archbishop of Cashel, assisted by the Bishops of 
Limerick and Killala. He died at Wyanstown, on the 30th of January, 
1695, and was buried in the church of Clonmethan, in the diocese of 
Dublin. His lordship's eldest son Thomas went into holy orders, and in 
the year 1720, was promoted to the rectory of Mitchelstown, county of 
Cork. He married (see Burke's " Landed Gentry ") Martha, daughter of 
Bretridge Badham, Esquire, M.P. for Rathcorraack, and had issue Henry, 
and two younger sons, St. George and John. Henry died in 1749* leaving 
an only son, Abraham St. George, who married Frances, daughter of Wil- 
liam Harrington, of Grange-Con Castle, Esquire. His eldest and only 
surviving son is Captain William Ryder, of Riverstown- House, represen- 
tative and heir of the Lords De Rythre, of whom he is the direct lineal 
descendant, through Thomas De Rythre, treasurer to Edward the Sixth. 

The third son of Thomas Ryder of Maccleston was Sir William Rythre, 
or Ryder, of London, who received the honour of knighthood from Eliza- 
beth. He was uncle to the Lord Bishop of Killaloe, and father of Mary, 
who married Sir Thomas Lake, afterwards principal Secretary of State to 
James I. Lady Lake, it would appear, inherited an immense fortune, and 
was possessed of singular fascinations of manner, and personal attractions 
of no ordinary description, whilst her husband, Sir Thomas Lake, was uni- 



106 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

versally considered to be inferior to no gentleman of the day, either in 
ability or accomplishments. Their daughter, Elizabeth, even excelled her 
mother in beauty, whilst her mind, bold, original, and capacious, received 
all the cultivation derivable from the concurrence of wealth, opportunity, 
and an insatiable desire for self-improvement. Yet all these advantages, 
seldom indeed existing separately, and so very rarely united, were com- 
pletely counterbalanced by a misconception, which, having received admis- 
sion into her mind, gradually effected such a modification in the exercise of 
its faculties, as caused it eventually to convert every incident, circumstance, 
and occurrence, into proofs of the delusion, — the infatuation — under whose 
vile despotisms it laboured ; — an infatuation, which ultimately proceeded to 
the adoption of measures the most odious in contrivance, and criminally ex- 
ecrable in purpose, to which, perhaps, any female, otherwise pure and unde- 
praved, had ever resorted. This overmastering feeling, which would have 
been speedily dissipated by a vigorous exercise of the high reasoning powers 
with which she was endowed, was jealousy, under the fatal influence of 
which the deadliest emotions were engendered, and the fairest prospects of 
human felicity utterly blasted, and laid desolate for ever. "After Sir Robert 
Cecil had attained the ministration of affairs, the place of Secretary of State 
was divided into two, and Sir Thomas Lake appointed to one of them, and 
so continued, says A. Wood, with honourable esteem of all men, till malice 
and revenge, two violent passions, overruling the weaker sex, concerning 
his wife and daughter, involved him in their quarrel, the chief and only 
cause of his ruin." * "Lord Roos, in February, l6l6, married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Sir Thomas Lake, principal Secretary of State, by Mary, 
daughter and heir of Sir William Rythre ; and in July of the same year, 
his title of Lord Roos, which had been disputed by the Earl of Rut- 
land, was adjudged in his favour. He returned from Spain in March, 
161 6-1 7, and in August following secretly withdrew himself out of Eng- 
land, leaving his estate in great disorder, after having sent a challenge to 
his brother-in-law Arthur Lake ; and though he was required by the Lords 
of the Council to return, refused to comply with their order." t Saunderson, 
who was Secretary to Lord Roos, in his embassy to Spain, gives the follow- 
ing account of the dispute between Francis Countess of Exeter and the 
Lake family. 

"The Lord Roos, through Sir Thomas Lake's credit, was sent 
ambassador extraordinary into Spain, in a very gallant equipage, in the year 
161 1, with hopes of his own to continue longer, to save charges of transmit- 

* Saunelerson's " Life of James I." 
f Birch's " Life of Prince Heury." 



HAREWOOD CASTLE. 107 

ting any other. In his absence here fell out a deadly feud (no matter for 
what) between the Lady Lake, and her daughter's stepmother the Countess 
of Exeter, which was fully described in a letter, and sent from England 
to me at Madrid. A youthful widow this countess had been, and 
virtuous, the relict of Sir Thomas Smyth, Clerk of the Council and Re- 
gistrar of the Parliament, and daughter of William fourth Lord Chandos ; 
and so she married and became bed-fellow to this aged, diseased, gouty, 
but noble Earl of Exeter, who was the maternal grandfather of the Lord 
de Roos. Home comes the Lord Roos from his embassy, whereupon he 
fell into great neglect of his wife and her kindred, and refused to increase the 
allowance to her settlement of jointure, which was promised to be com- 
pleted at his return ; not long after he stays in England, but away he gets 
into Italy, and turned a professed Roman Catholic, being cozened into that 
religion here by his public confident Gondamore. 

" In this last absence never to return, Lady Lake, and her daughter Lady 
Roos, accuse the Countess of Exeter of former incontinency with the Lord 
Roos, whilst he was here, and that therefore he fled from his wife, and from 
his marriage bed, with other devised calumnies, by several designs and 
contrivements, to have impoisoned the Ladies Lake and Roos. The 
quarrel blazoned at court to the king's ear, who, as privately as could be, 
singly examines each party. The countess, with tears and imprecations, 
professes her innocency, which to oppose, the Ladies Lake and Roos 
counterfeit her hand to a whole sheet of paper, wherein they make her 
with much contrition to acknowledge herself guilty, and crave pardon for 
attempting to impoison them, and desire friendship for ever with them all. 
The King gets sight of this, as in favour to them, and demands the time, 
place, and occasion when this should be writ. They tell him that all the 
parties met in a visit at Wimbledon (Lord Exeter's house), where in dis- 
pute of this difference she confessed her fault, and desirous of absolution 
and friendship, consents to set down all under her own hand, which 
presently she writ at the upper end of the great chamber at Wimbledon, 
in the presence of Lord and Lady Roos, Lady Lake, and one Diego, a 
Spaniard, his lordship's confiding servant. But now they being gone and 
at Rome, the King forthwith sends Master Dendy, one of his Serjeants at 
Arms, sometime a domestic of Lord Exeter's, an honest and worthy man, 
post to Rome, who speedily returns with Lord Roos's, and Diego's hands, 
and other testimonials, that all the said accusations, confession, suspicions, 
and papers, concerning Lady Exeter, were notoriously false and scandalous, 
and confirm by receiving their eucharist, in assurance of her honor and her 
innocency. Besides, several letters of her hand, compared with this writing, 
concluded it counterfeit. Then the King tells the Ladies Lake and Roos, 



108 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

that the writing being denied by Lady Exeter, their testimonies as parties 
would not prevail without additional witnesses. They then adjoin one 
Sarah Wharton, their chambress, who they affirm stood behind the hangings, 
at the entrance of the room, and heard Lady Exeter read over what she had 
writ; and to this she .swears before the King. But after a hunting at 
. New Park, the King dined at Wimbledon, and in that room observes the 
great distance from the window to the lower end, and placing himself 
behind the hangings, (and so different lords in their turn) they could not 
hear a loud voice from the window. Besides, the hangings wanted two 
feet of the ground, and might discover the woman if hidden behind ; the 
King saying e oaths cannot conceal my sight.' 

"And the hangings had not been removed in that room for thirty years 
before, of which particular the King fully satisfied his mind. Nay, more 
than all these, the Ladies Lake and Roos counterfeit a confession in writing 
of one Luke Hutton, that for 40/., the Lady Exeter should hire him to 
impoison them, which man, with wonderful providence, was found out, 
and privately denies it to the King. And thus prepared, the King sends 
for Sir Thomas Lake, whom in truth he valued, tells him the danger to 
embark himself in this business, advising him to leave those who were 
really implicated in the quarrel to the law, the matter being ready for a 
star-chamber adjudication. 

" He humbly thanked his Majesty, but could not refuse to be a father and 
a husband ; and so he put his name with theirs in a cross-bill, which at 
hearing, took up five several days, the King sitting in judgment. But the 
former testimonies, and some private confessions of Lady Roos and Sarah 
Wharton, which the king kept in secret, made the cause for some days of 
trial appear doubtful to the court, until the King's discovery, which con- 
cluded the sentence pronounced upon the parties. Sir Thomas and Lady 
Lake were fined ten thousand pounds to the King, five thousand pounds 
to Lady Exeter, and fifty pounds to Hutton. Sarah Wharton was sen- 
tenced to be whipped at the cart's tail about the streets, and to do penance 
at St. Martin's church. The Lady Roos for confessing the truth and plot 
in the midst of the trial was pardoned by the most voices from penal sen- 
tence, although she it was whose groundless jealousy of Lady Exeter and re- 
presentations to her mother on the subject had originated this ruinous 
proceeding. The King, I remember, compared te the crime to the first 
plot of the first sin in paradise, the lady, to the serpent, her daughter, to 
Eve, and Sir Thomas Lake to poor Adam, whose love to his wife, the old 
sin of our father, had beguiled him. I am sure he paid for all, which as 
he told me, cost him thirty thousand pounds, the loss of his master's 
favour, and offices of honour and gain, but truly with much pity and 



BEAUMANOR. 109 



compassion at court, he being held an honest man." A descendant of Sir 
Thomas Lake's was raised to the peerage by the style and title of Lord 
Viscount Lake, in consequence of his brilliant services, and distinguished 
military achievements. 



33taumanot\ 

Leicestershire is exceedingly rich in spots of historic interest, 
Leicester Abbey, Bradgate Park, Bosworth Field, will probably be re- 
membered, 

4 'To the last syllable of recorded time." 

It is rich, too, in baronial castles and ancestral halls ; Belvoir Castle has 
a world-wide fame, and Donington, Gopsal, Lowesby, Garendon, Cole- 
orton, &c, &c, are beauty spots on the face of a most beautiful county. 

It has lately received an " added charm," by the re-erection of two of 
its stateliest halls, those of Beaumanor, the seat of William Herrick, 
Esq., and Prestwold, the seat of C. W. Packe Reading, Esq., M.P. The 
very name of Beaumanor is suggestive of territorial beauty. Situated in 
a lovely vale on the eastern boundary of Charnwood Forest, and combin- 
ing an intermixture of the richest woodland with pleasant slopes, and the 
wild and picturesque rocks of the Forest, the ancient park, partially dis- 
parked as it has long been, is still a tract of unusual loveliness. Crowned 
and embellished as it now is, by the noble Elizabethan mansion just com- 
pleted, it may fairly take rank in the first class of those great ornaments of 
England — the country seats of the aristocracy. 

There are mansions whose sole charm is the picturesque scenery by 
which they are surrounded ; there are some which architectural beauty 
alone invests with interest ; and there are others which are hallowed by 
associations or memories of the past. Beaumanor combines all these 
charms. At so early a period as the reign of Henry II., the demesne was 
the bright oasis of the desert that environed it. The first house erected 
upon it was probably built by Geoffrey Le Despenser, ancestor of the 
two distinguished but unfortunate Hughs of that name. This must 
have been about the commencement of the 12th century, when he ob- 
tained the privilege of erecting a chapel in his fundus of Little Haw, 
which was evidently a part of the ancient manor. The earliest recorded 
mention of Beaumanor by name, occurs in an inquisition taken after the 
battle of Evesham, in which the names of all the Leicestershire adherents 



HO THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

of Simon de Montford (and consequently the names of the Le Despensers), 
and the value of their lands, are carefully specified ; and this record shews 
that a certain place called Beaumanor was then the possession of John Le 
Despenser. Hence, it is evident that the name was not derived, as has 
been erroneously conjectured, from the later possessors, the Beaumonts. 
The park was, however, during their time, sometimes termed " Parcum 
de BellamonW To shew how just a claim Beaumanor has to be reckoned 
among our " Historic Lands," we will now proceed to give a brief 
sketch of the distinguished persons who have successively been its lords. 
The first family, as we have already stated, was the Le Despensers ; the 
origin of this house, whose members make so considerable a figure in 
history, has always been involved in much doubt. A local historian* of 
considerable merit, asserts that they did not derive from Robert Dispenser, 
the steward of the Conqueror, but from a steward of the Earls of Lei- 
cester, and their early location in the heart of the possessions of those 
ancient Earls, gives great force to this conjecture. That Beaumanor was 
frequently the abode both of Hugh Le Despenser, Earl of Winchester, 
and of his volatile, but highly gifted son, Hugh, Earl of Winchester and 
Gloucester, is gathered from some statements in the " History of the 
Honour of Winton." 

By the attainder of the two Spencers in 1325-6, Beaumanor came to the 
crown, and was conferred on a person scarcely less eminent than those 
two remarkable men, — Henry de Beaumont, whose origin, too, has 
equally been a subject of dispute amongst genealogists. It appears, how- 
ever, pretty clear that he was descended from Lewis, grandson of Lewis 
IX. of France, and that he was nearly related to Eleanor of Castile, 
the heroic wife of Edward I. 

In 1330, this distinguished nobleman began the erection of the second 
mansion at Beaumanor, and commenced imparking the portion of the do- 
main called the Great Park, which, according to Camden, he enclosed 
with a stone wall : — " Saltus de Charnwood sive Charley longe expan- 
ditur, in quo Beaumanor vivarium cernitur, quod Domini de Bellomonte, 
ut accepi, lapideo muro circumsepserunt." 

The circumference of this park has been stated by some writers to have 
been twenty miles ; and if this admeasurement were correct, it must have 
then included the ancient park of Quorndon, or Barrow Park. 

Leland, who visited it in 1536, says of it : — " Riding a little farther, 
I left the parke of Bewmanor, closid with a stone wall, and a pratie logge 
yn it, longging alate to Beaumont." 

* Mr. T. R, Potter; the author of " Charnwood Forest," &c., &c. 



BEAUMANOR. Ill 

By a partition of the adjoining forest amongst the heiresses of Roger de 
Quincy, Earl of Winton and Leicester, Comyn, Earl of Buchan, who 
had married one of them, became possessed of the adjoining demesne of 
Charley, and residing much at the Earl's Hall, became the near neighbour 
of Henry de Beaumont. This juxta-position led to a matrimonial 
alliance between De Beaumont, then ennobled, and Alice, the heiress of 
Comyn. Lord Beaumont was at the battle of Bannockburn. On his 
death, Beaumanor devolved on his son John, second Lord Beaumont, 
who married Alianore, fifth daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster. In 
1338, during the life- time of his father, he was employed in a public ex- 
pedition to Flanders, and in 1340, the Lady Alianore, while in attendance 
on Queen Philippa, in Brabant, gave birth to Henry, afterwards the third 
Baron, whose legitimacy was questioned by reason of his being an alien. 
His father had, however, sufficient interest with the King to obtain special 
letters patent, that his son should be reputed lawful heir, and inherit his 
lands in England, as if he had been born there. His legitimacy was 
ratified by Parliament in 1351. 

Henry, the third Baron Beaumont, married Margaret de Vere, daughter 
of John, Earl of Oxford, and dying in 1370, left a son John, the fourth 
Baron, then in his ninth year. This lord, the preux chevalier of his 
chivalric line, accompanied John of Gaunt to Spain, and afterwards 
shewed his prowess in a tournament at Calais, where, says Knighton, 
" he broke a lance with the Lord Chamberlain of France, and comported 
himself altogether as a brave true knight." He had the honour of en- 
tertaining Richard II. and his Queen, at Beaumanor, on their progress 
from Leicester to Nottingham, and a second time in 1390. He died in 
13Q7} leaving three sons, Henry, his successor; Thomas, (from whom 
descended the Coleorton branch ; see Grace Dieu) and Richard. 

Henry, fifth Baron, a distinguished soldier on the Lancastrian side, 
died 1413, leaving John, his son and heir. This John, in 1440, was 
created a Viscount, being the first person in England who received that 
honour. He was slain at the battle of Northampton, in 1459; having 
settled Beaumanor on his second wife, Catherine, widow of John Mow- 
bray, Duke of Norfolk. On the demise of the Duchess, the demesne 
reverted to William, the second Viscount, and second son of the first, an 
elder son, Henry, having predeceased his father. History presents few 
nobler characters, and few instances of worse usage than those exemplified 
in the person of this eminent and injured nobleman. Taken prisoner while 
bravely fighting for his sovereign, Henry VI. at Towton Field (146l), he 
was shortly afterwards attainted, and Beaumanor, so long their favourite 
home, passed by confiscation from the " glorious Beaumonts," and was con- 



112 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

ferred on a person scarcely less remarkable for his talents or misfortunes 
than the last possessor. This was Sir William, afterwards Lord Has- 
tings ; the friend of Edward IV. and of — Jane Shore 

The attainder of Lord Hastings in 1483, again gave the demesne back 
to the Crown, and Lord Leonard Grey, the second son of the Marquis of 
Dorset (in consequence of a remainder in a Crown lease), became the next 
owner. Ever since the unjust attainder of Viscount Beaumont, misfor- 
tune seemed linked with the possession; for in 1540, Lord Leonard, and 
in 1553, the Duke of Suffolk, his brother, and successor in this estate, 
were also beheaded. 

Beauraanor next came to one of the most remarkable women in English 
history — the Duchess of Suffolk, the daughter of the handsome Charles 
Brandon, the granddaughter of a Queen of France, and the mother of a 
Queen of England. It was in this sequestered and delightful abode that 
she wept over troubles such as few wives and mothers — in the stormiest 
times — have undergone and survived. The decapitation of her daughter, 
the ten days' Queen, followed in a few days by that of her husband — the 
cruel conduct of Lord Pembroke to Catherine, her second daughter — and 
the unequal marriage of Mary, her third child, to a Kentish yeoman, 
Martin Keys — were not ordinary woes. But however the Duchess may 
have grieved over the last calamity, either the domestic happiness which 
her daughter enjoyed, or a politic resolve to be a Vabri from the jea- 
lous suspicion of Elizabeth, led her to imitate that daughter's example, 
and she linked her lorn fate with that of her equerry, Adrian Stocks.* 
The Duchess lived five years, alternately at Beaumanor and Broughton 
Astley, in very quiet domestic life with her humble husband, and is said 
to have found that the shade was not only safer, but sweeter than the 
sunshine. She died in 1559, leaving, surviving, two of that trio of fair 
sisters ; and also a daughter by Mr. Stocks, who did not live to woman- 
hood. Mr. Stocks had interest sufficient to obtain a twenty-one years' 
lease of this manor, and he subsequently married the widow of the cele- 
brated Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and was returned as one of the members 
of the county ; circumstances that plainly shew he was not by any means 
the despicable and illiterate person a courtly writer has represented him. 

As if Beaumanor was fated to be the possession of a distinguished person, 
its next owner was the celebrated Earl of Essex, who having, in 1592, 

* When Cecil informed Queen Elizabeth of this misalliance of her cousin Frances, 
he could not help hazarding a bitter jest on the Queen's undisguised partiality for 
the handsome Dudley. "What!'' exclaimed her Majesty, "has she married her 
horse-keeper?" "Yes, madam," replied the premier, "and she says you would 
like to do the same with yours." 



BEAUMANOR. 113 

obtained a lease from the Crown, by petition to the Queen, soon afterwards 
transferred it to another very eminent person of his time, William, after- 
wards Sir William Heyrick. 

It was doubtless a desire to possess an estate in the county of his birth 
and in the neighbourhood in which his ancestors, from Eric the Forester 
to his own time, had held honoured place, which induced Sir William to 
locate himself at Beaumanor. The estate was now to become the posses- 
sion of a race as distinguished for their private and domestic virtues as 
their predecessors in the manor had been for military glory. They culti- 
vated and enjoyed the arts of peace, and Sir William and his lady (Joan, 
daughter of Richard May, of Mayfield Place, Esq.) became the progenitors 
of a race in whom all the characteristics of the English country gentleman 
may be said to have been hereditary. That Sir William possessed great 
abilities and the highest integrity is shewn by the confidence reposed in 
him both by Queen Elizabeth and James the First. For the former he 
had been ambassador at the Porte, and under the latter he held a tellership 
of the Exchequer, and was entrusted with the execution of several offices 
requiring the exercise of great discretion and talent. 

That Lady Heyrick was a most amiable and affectionate woman, may 
be inferred from the following beautiful letter to her husband : — 

" Sweet hart, I could not let so fet a messenjar pas me as hee did you. I 
houp you remember Mr. Votier's Godli Use of Prayer, everi morning and evin- 
ing, with all your compani. As you love God leave it not undone ; it shall 
bring a blessing on you and yours. God knows how short our time shall be on 
earth, as wee see daly feareful exsamples to put us in mind of our last end. 
Mr. Wadup the goldsmith went to Brestol well, and brought horn a ded corpse ; 
and one of our nebars at Richmond went out to milke her kine, as well as ever 
she was in her life, and melke two kine, and sodenly fell down ded and never 
spacke more. O God, grant we may ever be preparid, as living this houre, and 
dying the next ! Sweet hart, a littel afore you went your journi, I tould you 
that I must nedse take one into the hous to bring up the gerls, which you 
wilenly consented to that I should have one at Michelmas ; but so it is hap- 
ened, that she that was with my sister Hickes to bring up Bes Nowel* is com 
from my sister, and will not stay, because Bes Nowel is so headstrong that she 
cannot rule her. My sister Hickes sent me word of hur by Sir George Write, 
how fet a women she was for me to breed up my gerls ; and I knowing it of my 
own knoledge to be so, I houp you will not be angri with me for it : God, that 
knows my hart, knows I was never loufter to offend you in all my liefe than I 
have bine within this halfe yeare ; and so I houpe ever I shall be. If you 
should horde them forth, they would cost you £14, a yeare at the least, and save 
nothing at home ; beside, they will never be bred in Religion as at home, and 
* Daughter of Lord Campden. 



114 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

weare out twise so many clothes as at home. All things considered, this is the 
best corse. Mr. Votier came to me, and tould me the parish and hee would 
make you a fare pue afore my pue ; but they hard you would go away, and they 
would be louft to make it for Mr. Willams. I wil'd them to goo forward with 
theare good intent. I houp in God you would never leave this hous while I 
did live ; and I beseche God I may never live to gooe out of it e'en from the 
bottom of my harte. 

" Commend me to all our frends : I must not forgite my love to Will. Wee 
are all in helth. I leave you to his protection, who is abel to kepe you al. 
Sweet hart, Mr. Teri is in possession in that ones at the Custom-hous; but 
what my lord will have of him, he knoweth not yet. Your true and fathful wife 
tel death, 

" Joane Hericke." 

"■From London, the 22 day of August, 1616." 

Her portrait, still preserved at Beaumanor, bears the following distich : 

" Art may hir outsid thys present to view ; 
How faire within nor art nor tong can shew." 

There is no evidence of any rebuilding of the " fair house" or " pratie 
logge" built by Henry Lord Beaumont in 1330 ; it may therefore be con- 
cluded that the mansion on which Sir William Heyrick entered in 1596 
was identical with it. Indeed a description of Beaumanor in 1594 states 
it to be " an antient mansion-house of great receipte, moted about with as 
large mote stored with fish, with a drawbridge, garden, orchard, hop 
yards, &c, thereto belonginge, all very convenient and answerable." And 
a survey in 1656 says, " This antient raanour-house standeth and is 
seated in the parke callid Beaumanor Parke ; the manour-house is moated 
about with a faire cleare moate ; . . . . about which said building is a 
second moat." There must, however, have been a refacing, and perhaps 
a partial re-edifying of the house ; most probably, from the view of it 
preserved in Nichols, during the occupancy of the Duchess of Suffolk, for 
the style, as shewn in that engraving, is decidedly of the Tudor period. 
This ancient house was taken down in 1725, and was succeeded by a 
Palladian structure of very inferior pretensions, which, in its turn, in 1845, 
gave way to the present noble and truly tasteful edifice — perhaps as perfect 
a specimen of the late Elizabethan mansion as any modern architect has 
produced ; a combination, indeed, of massive grandeur and graceful en- 
richments, which produce a facade of the most chaste and imposing effect. 
It has not only the merit of being a very happy and much improved re- 
flection of the " antient house," but of being in beautiful harmony with 
the surrounding scenery. And what is this scenery ? A richly-timbered 



BEAUMA1C0R. 115 

park (the one first enclosed by Lord Beaumont, and, unfortunately, partly 
disparked by Sir William Heyrick), containing one of the most charming 
double avenues in England, and oaks of the largest dimensions and most 
picturesque forms ; a lowly hamlet of truly rural character ; and, to crown 
all, the romantic rocks of Charnwood looming in the west, like the towers 
of some stupendous ruin of the days of old. 

Mere* architectural description is scarcely a part of our plan, or much 
might be said in praise both of the architect (Mr. Railton) who had the 
talent to design, and of Mr. Herrick, who had the liberality to erect, a 
house in every way so worthy of such a site. The wisdom of adhering to 
this on a demesne that offered so many preferable sites, has been ques- 
tioned ; but hallowed by memories of warriors, statesmen, poets, and 
sages — hallowed, too, by its having witnessed the birth, the peaceful life 
and death of seven generations of his own time-honoured family, Mr. 
Herrick might well be supposed to feel that such a spot was a charmed 
spot to him. 

" Nee tarn praesentes alibi cognoscere divos." 

He is the eighth of his Christian and surname who has been owner of 
the manor, and it is but justice to him to say, that the hospitalities of the 
new hall are correspondent with its just pretensions to be a perfect realiza- 
tion of an old English Manor-house (baronial hall we should rather term 
it), of the first class. 

It should be added, that the interior of the hall is in strict keeping with 
its external character. The entrance hall and staircase, so often the 
grand failure in the mansions of our aristocracy, are the architect's hap- 
piest productions at Beaumanor. In beauty, convenience, and imposing 
effect, they are not surpassed in any of our proudest Halls. Richly 
carved oak composes the balustrades, and the stairs, beginning in the 
centre of the hall, branch off at the first landing place, and lead to a 
gallery which occupies three sides of the quadrangle, while the fourth 
contains a most noble heraldic window of exquisite beauty, and of very 
large dimensions. The cellarage, kitchens, and offices are all on the 
largest scale and of the completest arrangement; the chief rooms of grace- 
ful proportion, and the ordinary rooms replete with comfort. Massive 
and richly carved oak will, as might be expected, be the consistent and 
appropriate furniture, and some fine old paintings, and a collection of 
most interesting family portraits, will adorn the walls. Nor, while so 
much of the olden time is brought back to us, are the superior comfort 
and elegancies of modern life omitted. It would be wrong not to men- 
tion among the many antiques, the celebrated hall-chair. This curious 



]\() THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

and most capacious seat was hewn from one of the oaks of the park ; it 
is without nail or joint, and is said to be the most gigantic chair in Eng- 
land. It forms the subject, and no unworthy subject, of a poem and an 
engraving, in the " History of Charnwood Forest." On this chair 
always hangs a garland of red roses, with spear heads intertwined, an 
annual service rendered by the Farnham family to the lord of Beau- 
manor, for some lands held subject to that payment. The presentation 
of the garland, instead of being, as often happens in such cases, a ground 
of dispute, has long been an occasion on which the friendly feeling sub- 
sisting between the families, is most heartily reciprocated. 

There are other services of feudal origin still rendered at the manor 
court ; for instance, a pound of pepper from Barrow, and four flights of 
arrows from Frisby. A long-standing custom also prevails on Valentine's 
day, when every child of the neighbouring hamlets presents a valentine 
at the hall, and receives a gratuity. More than three-hundred have 
sometimes been presented, and the day is the children's gala of the year. 

The continuance of this old custom shews the kindly feelings enter- 
tained by the lord towards the humble tenantry, and is perhaps a link 
in that band of grateful affection, which binds all the denizens of the 
estate to its owner, in a manner too rarely witnessed in modern times. 

We have only spoken of one of the seven William Herricks, successively 
lords of this manor, before their present worthy representative ; not that 
they were less deserving of biographical notice than their predecessors in 
the possession, but simply because their lives were of that unostentatious 
character which seeks its reward in filling with unstained honour the 
station of an English country gentleman. Yet were it easy to name 
many of the Herrick line who have essentially served their country. 

Allusion has been made to poets of the Herrick family. Robert Her- 
rick, the author of " Hesperides," one of the most richly original poets 
of the seventeenth century, was a collateral. It was therefore not 
apocryphal perhaps, in the author of " Charnwood Forest," to suppose 
that the sylvan shades of Beaumanor may have been the scene of many 
of his inspirations : 

" Herrick famed for love-fraught lyrics, 
Sang his love-songs in these groves ; 
Half Anacreon's soul was Herrick's, 
And the other half was — Love's." 

Some original letters of the poet, still extant amongst the Hey rick 
papers, shew that he was supported at the university, by the bounty of 
his kinsman, Sir William Heyrick. 



FOXDENTON HALL. 117 

The mother of Dean Swift was also a Herrick, and the amiable and 
too early lost Lieut. John Herrick, left evidence that, had his life been 
spared, he would have held no common place among the poets of our 
country. 

With such a genius hci 3 such an array of noble, eminent and honoured 
possessors, with such sylvan scenery within it, and with such a noble 
mansion upon it, we think we are justified in giving high place among 
the " Historic Lands of England," to the subject of these remarks — the 
beautiful demesne of Beau-Manor. 



dforttttttou Stall, to. $alattn« of EanraSter. 

Foxdenton Hall, seat of the RadclyfFes ! How the very name of 
that historic family carries us back to far distant times, and a period antece- 
dent to the Norman conquest ; deducing their name and their lineage from 
Radclyffe, Radclffye tower was long the seat of their ancestors, from whom 
descended a stock of right loyal, gallant, and gifted scions, well worthy of 
their Saxon sires. It is a name which reflects more renown on its ancestral 
titles of Fitzwalter, Sussex, and Derwentwater, than ever title added 
honour to a name, while the proud, yet simple motto, " Caen, Cressie, 
Calais," tells how the bold and chivalrous ancestor of the owners of Fox- 
denton fought for his sovereign, and acquired undying fame on those three 
stricken fields! 

On the eastern side of the Irwell, not far distant from Bury in Lanca- 
shire, rises a bold cliff of red rock, opposite to a village of decidedly Saxon 
origin, which, from thence was called Red or Radclyffe : and this parish, 
doubtless, before it was possessed by the Earls of Chester, gave its name 
to the family of which we are speaking. 

Indeed from a very remote period, we can trace the RadclyfFes as resident 
in the Palatinate of Lancaster, and truly it were difficult to point out a 
family more distinguished. An unbroken male descent from a period 
nearly coeval with, if not previous to, the conquest ; their intermarriages 
with some of the noblest families of Britain ; their deeds of valour on the 
battle-field ; their wisdom in the council chamber, sufficiently attest their 
antiquity and importance, whilst the mere record of their dignities, proves 
the high rank they enjoyed. The house of Radclyffe produced fourteen 
Earls, one Viscount, five Barons, seven Knights of the Garter, one Lord- 
Deputy of Ireland, two Ambassadors, several Bannerets and Knights of the 
Bath, along with many Privy Councillors, Warriors, and Statesmen. The 



118 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

foundations of the extraordinary greatness of this faraly were laid by Sir 
Richard de Radclyffe, of Radclyffe Tower. He was seneschal and minister 
of the royal forests of Blackburnshire, and accompanied King Edward I. 
to his wars and victories in Scotland ; and in the 32nd year of that prince's 
reign (a.d. 1302), obtained from his royal master, the grant of a charter of 
free warren and free chase in all his demesne lands of Radclyffe, Ordshall, 
&c. Of his sons by his first wife, who was a daughter of Boteler, Baron 
of Warrington, Sir John Radclyffe, the younger, was progenitor of the 
Radclyffes of Foxdenton, while the elder, Sir William (usually styled " the 
great William ") of Culceth and Edgeworth, and afterwards of Radclyffe 
tower, by his marriage with Margaret de Culceth, was ancestor of the Rad- 
clyffes, Barons Fitzwalter and Earls of Sussex. But as by the union, which 
will hereafter be shewn, of Sir Alexander Radclyffe, Knight of the Bath, 
with the Lady Jane, only child and heiress of the fifth Earl of Sussex, the 
representation of both lines is centered in the present Lord of Foxdenton, 
our memoranda of his illustrious ancestors must necessarily embrace each. 

Sir John Radclyffe, Kt , of Ordshall, or Odershall, whom we have men- 
tioned above, married the Lady Joan Holland, sister of Thomas, Earl of Kent, 
and was Member of Parliament for the co. of Lancaster in the fourteenth 
year of Edward III., under whom he served in the French wars, and dis- 
tinguished himself particularly at Caen, Cressie, and Calais, from which cir- 
cumstance and period, this family have since borne those three names as 
their hereditary motto. He left an only son, Richard Radclyffe, called 
" le puigne" who, in the fourth year of Richard II. (1381), was drowned 
in the Rosendale ; he held for upwards of twenty years the same important 
office which his grandfather had previously filled — the stewardship of 
Blackburnshire ; and by his marriage with Matilda, only child of Legh of 
Booths in Cheshire, acquired the estates and quartered the arms of that 
family. He was succeeded by his only son, Sir John, who married into 
the ancient and Knightly family of Trafford of Trafford, and died in 1421. 
The great grandson of this Sir John, by his union with Elizabeth, daughter 
and co-heiress of John Radclyffe, Esq., of Catherton and Foxdenton, brought 
the latter estate for the Jirst time into this branch of the family. 

Our allotted limits compel us to pass without particular notice Sir John 
Radclyffe, Kt., Alexander Radclyffe, Esq., and William Radclyffe, Esq., the 
successive owners of Ordshall. Sir Alexander, grandson and successor of 
the last mentioned William, who died May 15th, 1498, served the office of 
High Sheriff for the co. Palatine, in 1547, and, at his decease in the fol- 
lowing year, left, by his wife Alice, daughter of Sir John Booth, of Barton 
co. Lane, along with other issue, a son and heir, Sir William Radclyffe, 
of Ordshall, Kt., on whom, and the heirs male of his bodv, were settled 



FOXDETS'TON HALL. 119 

the Fitzwalter estates, on failure of divers remainders, mentioned in the 
will of his relative, Henry Radclyffe, second Earl of Sussex, who died in 
1556. 

Sir William, by his first marriage with Margaret, daughter of Sir Ed- 
mond Trafford of Trafford, left three sons j the eldest died without issue, 
only a few weeks before his father ; and the youngest by his union with 
the Heiress of Foxdenton brought that estate for the second time into the 
direct line of succession. The second son, Sir John Radclyffe, of Ordshall, 
Kr., succeeded his father and married Anne, only daughter and heiress 
of Thomas Ashawe, of Hall on the Hill, in High Charnock, Lancashire : he 
had five sons, all of whom died on the battle-field bravely fighting for their 
Sovereign : the eldest, Sir Alexander, as well as his next brother, William, 
both fell in the wars in Ireland, unmarried, the elder in 1599, the second 
in 1 598, at Blackwater, fighting against Hugh, Earl of Tyrone : while the 
fourth and fifth sons, Edmund and Thomas, were both killed in battle in 
French Flanders, in 1599» The representation of this ancient family 
and the succession to the estates thus devolved upon the third brother, 
Sir John Radclyffe, whose sister, Margaret Radclyffe, was favorite Maid of 
Honour to Queen Elizabeth. She died at Richmond on the 10th of Nov., 
1599* of grief for the loss of her brothers, and^was, by the Queen's command, 
buried as a lady, in St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 22nd of the same 
month. Her father died at Ordshall, and was interred with his ancestors 
in the choir of the collegiate — now the cathedral-church of Manchester — 
on the 11th of February 1589. 

His third son, Sir John Radclyffe, who, on the decease of his eldest 
brother, succeeded to the representation of the family at the age of eighteen, 
married Alice, eldest daughter of Sir John Byron, Kt., of Newstead 
Abbey, Notts : and following the gallant example of his family, he fell in 
the attack on the Isle of Rhee, off the coast of France, on the 29th of Oct., 
1627, and was succeeded by his only son, Sir Alexander Radclyffe, of Ord- 
shall, Knight of the Bath, who, by his marriage with the only child 
of Henry, fifth Earl of Sussex, united the two kindred lines, and be- 
came male chief and representative of this distinguished family. 

Turn we now to the descendants of the " Great William" of Culceth, 
eldest son of Sir Richard de Radclyffe, of Radclyffe Tower. In the year 
1420, being the seventh Henry V., we find his great grandson, Sir 
John Radclyffe, Kt., Governor of Acquitaine, and in the first year 
of Henry VI., Seneschal of the same duchy : in the fourth year of the 
same reign, he had a grant of the wardship of Ralph Neville, Earl of 
Westmoreland and Lord of Middleham, and seven years afterwards, all the 
revenues of the crown issuing out of the counties of Carnarvon and 



120 THE LAND8 OF ENGLA1SD. 

Merioneth, and the Lordships of Chirk and Chirkland, were assigned to him 
to liquidate an arrear of service money amounting to £7029, an enormous 
sum in those days. This eminent soldier, who was a Knight Banneret 
and Knight of the Garter, married Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of 
Walter Fitzwalter, last Baron of Fitzwalter of that family, and was suc- 
ceeded by his son Sir John Radclyffe, who, in the first year of Henry VII., 
being then steward of the king's household, was summoned to Parliament 
as Baron Fitzwalter, in right of his mother. He was subsequently ap- 
pointed Chief Justice of all the forests beyond the Trent, and at the 
Coronation of Elizabeth of York, King Henry's consort, was associated 
with Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, to perform the duties of High 
Steward of England ; but subsequently, engaging in the war on 
behalf of Perkin Warbeck, he suffered attainder and death at Calais, 
when the Barony of Fitzwalter became forfeited. But his son, Robert 
Radclyffe, a great favourite of Henry VII., was restored in blood and hon- 
ours, by Act of Parliament, in the first year of Henry VIII., and became 
second Baron Fitzwalter of the Radclyffe family ; four years after he ac- 
companied the King in his great expedition to Tournay ; and ten years 
subsequently commanded the van of the army sent into France under the 
Earl of Surrey : for these eminent services, he was created, July 18, 1525, 
Viscount Fitzwalter, by letters patent ; in 1529, his lordship, along with 
other peers, subscribed the articles against Cardinal Wolsey ; after which 
he was made a Knight of the Garter, and on the 28th December in the 
same year, was elevated to the Earldom of Sussex : the following year we 
find his name among the peers who signed the remonstrance to Pope Cle- 
ment VII., about the King's divorce from Catherine of Arragon ; and in 
1532 he attended Henry into France, after which he was constituted 
Lord High Chamberlain of England on the attainder of Thomas Crom- 
well, Earl of Essex. In addition to all the honours we have recorded 
his lordship was unhappily a considerable participator in that spoliation of 
the church, which appears to have entailed misfortune on so many families 
who shared in the unhallowed spoils. He married first, the Lady Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Henry, Duke of Buckingham ; secondly, Lady Mar- 
garet Stanley, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Derby ; and thirdly, Mary, 
daughter of Sir John Arundel, of Lanherne, in Cornwall. 

The Earl died in 1 542, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry 
Radclyffe, K.B., who commanded 1600 demi-lances in the expedition into 
Scotland, in the first year of Edward VI., and narrowly escaped with 
his life. He was one of the first who, on the death of that monarch, 
declared for his sister Mary, and was in consequence, soon after her ac- 
cession, appointed by that Queen, Warden and Chief Justice of all the 



F0XDENT0N HALL. 121 

royal forests south of the Trent, and was also made a Knight of the 
Garter. His lordship married first, the Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter 
of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Philip 
Calthorpe, Kt., from whom he was subsequently divorced. At his death, Feb. 
17th, 1556, the Earldom and other honours devolved on his eldest son, Sir 
Thomas Radclyfle. This eminent nobleman, during the lifetime of his 
father, was sent ambassador by Queen Mary to the Emperor Charles V., 
to treat of the marriage between herself and Prince Philip, his eldest son, 
afterwards King of Spain; and he subsequently proceeded to the Prince 
himself, at the Court of Spain, to obtain a ratification of the treaty. In 
the 2nd year of Philip and Mary, Sir Thomas Radclyffe was appointed 
Lord Deputy of Ireland, and soon after his father's decease, succeeded him 
as Chief Justice of the royal forests south of the Trent. A few years 
afterwards we find the Earl a Knight of the Garter, and Captain of the 
Pensioners ; on the accession of Elizabeth, he was continued in the govern- 
ment of Ireland, and in the third year of her reign elevated to the rank 
of Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom. Six years afterwards he had the 
honour of bearing the order of the Garter to the Emperor Maximilian, 
and was subsequently employed in negotiating a matrimonial alliance be- 
tween his Royal Mistress, and the Archduke Charles of Austria. In 
the twelfth year of Elizabeth, he was Lord President of the North, and 
upon an incursion of the Scots, invaded Scotland and laid several of 
their towns and castles in ashes. He sat subsequently on the trial of the 
Duke of Norfolk, and was a commissioner to treat of a marriage between 
the Duke of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth, in the 24th year of her reign. 
His lordship married first, Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of Thomas, 
Earl of Southampton, and secondly, Frances, daughter of Sir William 
and sister of Sir Henry Sydney, Kt., and died at his house of Bermondsey 
in South wark, June, 1583. He was buried at Boreham, and has he had no 
issue to survive him, the honours devolved on his brother, Henry Radclyffe, 
fifth Lord Fitzwalter, and fourth Earl of Sussex, a Knight of the Garter, 
Captain and Governor of Portsmouth. He married Honora, daughter of 
Anthony Pound, Esq., of Hants: and dying April 10th, 1593, was suc- 
ceeded by his only child, Robert Radclyffe, sixth Lord Fitzwalter, and fifth 
Earl of Sussex. This nobleman was with the Earl of Essex in the 
attack on and sacking of the city of Cadiz, in the 39th year of Elizabeth. 
His lordship, who was installed a Knight of the Garter in 1621, married 
first, Bridget, daughter of Sir Charles Morrison, Kt., of Cashiobury Park, 
Hertfordshire, and had by her two sons and two daughters, all of whom 
with their issue died in his lifetime. The Earl espoused secondly, Frances, 
daughter of Hercules Mewtas, Esq., of West Ham, in Essex, widow of 



122 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Robert Shute, of Hockington, co. Cambridge, Esq. The Countess of 
Sussex died 18th Nov., 1627, and the Earl, who was buried at Boreham, in 
1629, leaving an only daughter, the Lady Jane Radclyffe, on whom 
should have devolved the Barony of Fitz waiter— the Earldom of Sussex, 
and Viscountcy Fitzwalter having reverted to Sir Edward Radclyffe, (son 
of Sir Humphrey Radclyffe of Elveston, co. Bedford, and grandson of 
Robert the first Earl,) who dying without issue, in 1641, these honours 
became extinct — her Ladyship having married (a.d. 1624) as above men- 
tioned, her kinsman, Sir Alexander Radclyffe, of Ordshall, Knight of the 
Bath, he became in her right seised of the manor and estates of Attle- 
borough, in the county of Norfolk, where he subsequently resided, and 
which for very many generations had been possessed by the elder branch 
of this great family. 

Of this marriage, which after the lapse of three centuries reunited the 
two lines of Radclyffe, there was a numerous offspring, but the elder sons 
having died unmarried or their issue become extinct, the representation 
devolved upon Robert Radclyffe, Esq., born at Attleborough, in 1 6.50, a 
Captain in the Duke of Monmouth's regiment, serving the King of Spain. 
Mr. Radclyffe married in 1 676, Anne, only daughter and heiress of Row- 
land Eyre, of Bradbury in Derbyshire, Esq. : and having been killed in a 
duel, Feb. 20, 1685, was buried the following day in the Tatton Chapel, 
Northenden Church, Cheshire. He was succeeded by his eldest son, then 
only eight years of age, who, by virtue of the wills of his relatives, Mrs. 
Mary Byron and Mrs. Susan Potter, (daughters, by the second marriage 
with his cousin, the heiress of Foxdenton, of Richard, youngest son of Sir 
William Radclyffe, of Ordshall, Kt., who died in 1568) came into posses- 
sion of the Foxdenton estates, and rebuilt the family mansion, which is 
still possessed by his great-grandson, the present Robert Radclyffe, Esq., 
of Foxdenton Hall, and of the city of Bath, born Dec, 1773. Mr. Rad- 
clyffe, who married Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten, Esq., of Bank 
Hall, near Warrington, M.P. for Lancashire, served, in 1813, the office 
of High Sheriff for Dorsetshire, and is at this time claiming the ancient 
Barony of Fitzwalter. 

The illustrious house of Radclyffe was further ennobled in the person of 
Sir Francis Ratclyffe, a scion of the same ancient family, who (a.d. 1687) 
was by patent created Baron of Tynedale, Viscount Ratclyffe and Langly, 
and Earl of Derwentwater ; but this branch having unfortunately ad- 
hered to the cause of the exiled, but now extinct, Stuart dynasty, the 
title became forfeited. 

By the marriage, however, of the Countess of Newburgh with Charles 
James, the brother of the third Earl of Derwentwater, that peerage was 




^ 



'/ — J <I 



'- ,'X^r- 



ASHWORTH HALL. 123 

carried into the Radclyffe family, where it remained until the decease 
(in 1814) of Charles Bartholomew, fourth Earl of Newburgh, wit hou 
male issue, when the title devolved on Francis Eyre, Esq., and the repre- 
sentation of all the branches of this most ancient and distinguished family 
centered in Mr. Radclyffe of Foxdenton Hall. Foxdenton is a noble and lofty 
edifice of the l6th century, fronting northerly with two wings overlooking a 
beautiful lawn, deriving its name from a den of foxes, and bestowed as the 
dowry of Margaret Chadderton, on her marriage with John Radclyffe, son 
of De Radclyffe (second of Henry II.). From this couple the ample demesne 
of Foxdenton descended through twelve generations of the illustriously 
connected Radclyffes, to Sir William Radclyffe, Kt., who was taken pri- 
soner by the Parliamentary forces, at the battle of Marston Moor, July 
2nd, 1644 ; but safely conducted to Foxdenton, under the countenance of 
General Fairfax, as a letter yet in existence clearly proves. He died 
about 1649, beloved by both parties, after having been a Colonel and 
Captain in the royal army in 1642 and 1645. The present possessor of 
Foxdenton is Robert Radclyffe, Esq., the fifth in descent from the above 
Sir William, who has issue sons and daughters. The interior of this man- 
sion is adorned by many valuable family and other pictures ; among which 
are several portraits of the royal House of Stuart. It is at present in ex- 
cellent repair, and is situated in the township of Chadderton and parish of 
Prestwich, on a gentle eminence, two miles north-west of Oldham. 



8tef)foortl) toll, co. Haiua?ter. 

The manor of Ashworth derives its origin, as do many others in 
those wild and remote parts, from the period of the Britons quitting, and 
the Saxons occupying, the extensive and at that time depopulated districts 
which now form the respective boundaries of Yorkshire on the East, 
and the county of Lancaster on the West, and were included in the 
ancient kingdom of Northumbria. The whole country on its occupa- 
tion appears to have been subdivided into manors, townships, or villas, 
and of these, the various thanes or chiefs took possession, holding them 
in socage or in capite of the crown. Thus settled, they relinquished 
their erring and predatory habits, and becoming peaceful " lagemen," 
applied themselves to agriculture and to the more useful arts of life. Dis- 
carding the Celtic nomenclature, each lord gave his own name to his 
lands, often with some addition, either indicating his rank, the situation 
of his stronghold, or some other attribute. Thus in the present instance 



124 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

" Worth,"* in the Saxon language, signifies a mansion or stronghold, and 
Ashworth, undoubtedly the mansion of a Saxon leader, who bore 
a name similar to the preceding syllable of the compound word. 
So Harmondsworth, the mansion of Harmond, Kidworth, Calceworth, 
&c, &c. " Ham " and " cot " were also favourite Saxon terminations, 
as in Folkenham, Lubbenham, Wilcot, Evencot, &c. The manors thus 
apportioned seldom exceeded sixteen oxgangs or bovates of ploughed 
land, equal to about two caracutes, or two hundred and fifty acres ; but 
when to these were added the large tracts of woodland, mountain pasture, 
and morass, the extent of country which each embraced was sometimes 
considerable. Nothing could be more simple or patriarchal than the 
state of society thus engendered, and in passing through the district in 
those remote times, the aspect of the country must have afforded a 
striking contrast to that which it now exhibits. No mines of coal worked 
by a grim and debased population — -no huge factories, pouring forth from 
within and without, their black abominations. But, far as the eye could 
reach, healthy mountains and pastoral vales, extensive woodlands, the 
resort of the stag and the wolf, the boar and the wild ox. Here and 
there, raised high on some secure eminence, or low by the fertile margin 
of some rapid stream, might be seen the stronghold of some Saxon Thane, 
surrounded by the huts of his dependents, his shepherds and his swine- 
herds, his foresters and his agricultural labourers, all dependent on his 
bounty — his participators in weal or woe — his followers in war, his com- 
panions in the chase. And long after the Norman invasion did this 
state of society in reality exist in these remote districts, for the history of 
this and the adjoining manors presents but few changes till the civil 
wars of the seventeenth century called forth the spirit of domestic strife, 
set neighbour against neighbour, and kin against kin. Even now, 
though much more so within the memory of man, the pure Saxon 
dialect, in part, survives in the language of the country, and the 
philologist would almost fancy himself carried back to the palmy days of 
Edward the Confessor, did he mix familiarly with the peasantry of the 
more retired hill-districts, listen to their idiom, and observe their 
manners and habits, imbued, as they are, with most of the virtues 
and vices of their hardy progenitors. Happily, this interesting histo- 
rical fact will survive in that extraordinary work of Mr. Collier, entitled 
"Tim Bobbin, or the Lancashire Dialect," the pages of which no one 
acquainted even with the rudiments of the Anglo-Saxon language, can 
peruse, without feelings of surprise and lively interest. Whether it 

* Vide Dr. Whitaker's Craven. Also Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1st Ed. p. 150. 



ASH WORTH HALL. 12o 

was owing to the then uninviting aspect of the country, or to the deter- 
mined opposition of the Saxon possessors, who w r ere strong in their fast- 
nesses and means of internal defence, certain it is, that the Norman race 
never blended much with the population, and where the encroachments 
of commerce and manufactures have not penetrated, they continue to this 
day a very interesting specimen of what was the condition — what the 
habits — what the language of, perhaps, the finest race of men in the 
world, whether we regard their physical powers, their acuteness of in- 
tellect, or their indomitable perseverance. Nurtured in hardy habits, 
proud of endurance, born and fostered in principles of feudal, or we 
should rather say, of patriarchal discipline and obedience ; sturdy in their 
country's cause, and glorying in their country's might, ready to follow 
their chief whether to avenge public or private wrong ; these men were 
England's strength in all her ancient wars with France, and with their 
huge bows of native yew, which few foreign hands could bend, checked 
the onset of the bravest of the Gallic chivalry, and presented a Saxon 
phalanx which none ever braved with impunity. The imagination, in re- 
curring to those remote times, cannot fail to conjure up scenes peculiar 
and pleasing. It is true there was little of refinement, and their luxuries 
were of the most substantial, and their devotion to the drinking horn 
was occasionally too earnest, yet their mode of life was simple and free, 
and favourable to the development of many noble qualities. The wildest 
and most hazardous pursuits of the chase seem to have been their delight, 
a propensity, indeed, which still lives in these districts ; and when we 
contemplate the extent of those vast forests, moors, and morasses ; the 
beauty and number of the rivers and brooks which traverse them ; the 
magnificence of the rocks, and the gloomy grandeur of those romantic 
glens ; and, above all, the variety of game, and of beasts of the chase 
with which they abounded — (alas ! how spoiled the one, how destroyed 
the other) — we cannot but pronounce the lot of the ancient pastoral pos- 
sessors of these districts as far more enviable and desirable than that 
which has befallen their wealthier posterity. How far the triumph of 
commerce over agriculture will improve the morals and increase the 
real happiness and the political power of our country is a problem which 
will probably, ere long, be solved. There can be neither greatness nor 
happiness where authority is weak ; and as the universal tendency of 
commercial wealth distributed among a dense and morally neglected 
population, is to produce luxury, selfishness, insubordination, and theories 
of equality, foreign to the decrees of the Almighty, and to the ordained 
state of man, we are not of those who look upon money as creating or 



120 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

increasing moral power, but rather as " the root of all evil." It is a sad 
condition of our state that national power does not generally keep pace 
with mental progress ; refinement of taste produces the love of ease and 
indulgence, the sterner attributes of our nature are laid aside, and thus 
Rome fell subdued by the hardier virtues of those Barbarians whom she 
professed to despise. In Ashworth Hall we recognise one of those 
positions selected by the original grantee for the erection of his strong- 
hold, and though in the present structure little, if anything, probably re- 
mains of the original building, yet, that it retains its ancient site, no one 
that examines it can for a moment doubt. It is situated on a bold eminence 
which rises abruptly from the confluence of two streams, each emerging 
from a deep glen. Where these meet, the valley widens into what is 
denominated Ashworth Clough, presenting a pleasing succession of 
woods and pastures, till about a mile southwards, where the gables 
of old Bamford Hall are visible to the left, it expands into the 
valley through which the Roche wends its way, to join that beautiful 
river, the Ir-guiel, or Irwell, which, swelled by its many tributaries^ 
hurries past the ruined walls of Radclyffe Tower, and the now important 
site of the Roman Mancunium. Even now, deformed as the country 
is with huge manufactories, whose tall chimnies rise in almost every 
valley, and in many places with the very bowels of the earth, as it 
were, scattered over the now hidden surface, yet this Clough, when the 
author last visited it, retained much of its former beauty, enough to 
shew what it had been, but what, alas ! it can never be again. The 
old Hall still retains its aspiring site, its gables still peep from the 
woods that environ it, but much has been destroyed ; the strong stone- 
built gate-way, with its massive doors and wicket-gate, stands alone ; 
the eastern side of the quadrangle is gone, and nothing now remains but 
that southern portion which fronts the dilapidated terrace, with its 
moat and hanging garden. A hundred yew trees, tradition says, once 
grew in stately avenues, or in sombre groups, around this deserted home 
of many generations, but only a few survive ; they stand single and 
forlorn, their boughs lopped, their huge trunks disfigured, their foliage 
drooping. They might seem to mourn the desertion of the ancient race 
by whom they were planted and reared, and who still, though now 
settled in a warmer and more congenial clime, look back with melan- 
choly and regret to the forsaken home of their forefathers. It is sad 
to stand and contemplate such scenes ! and yet, they are but too 
common, throughout the length and breadth of the land ; disgraceful 
monuments of mean and sordid selfishness , It is sad to see the home of 



ASHWORTH HALL. 127 

centuries abandoned, those halls which could tell the history of so many 
ages, desolate and dismantled ; structures raised with such care and 
cost, and the successive pride of many a long pedigree, left a prey to 
the ravages of the elements ; a haunt for the bat and the owl ! Wo 
betide that heartless extravagance, or that grovelling and greedy thirst 
of gain, which thus severs the links of family pride and honour ; in- 
vades the natural rights of succeeding generations, and compels the 
heirs of the soil to seek new settlements, where their sympathies are 
quenched, and their name is unhonoured. A simple ballad, commemo- 
rative of some fair scion of this House, and the composition doubtless of 
some local poet, may not be without its interest, as connected with the 
subject we are discussing. 

" TO THE FAIRE AGNES. 

" Full manie a noble harte is seen 
On Pendle's hill and forest green ; 
But Bolton's Vale, and sunnie knowes, 
Can shew as stalwart deer as those. 

The streame that runs thro' Asheworthe Clough, 
Is rapid, cleare, and pure enough ; 
But brookes as clear we may admyre, 
In other vales of Lancashyre. 

A hundred yews that Clough can boaste, 
The memorie of whose age is lost ; 
Yet other spottes have many a yew, 
As ancyent and as spreadynge too. 

But Maiden of the Cloagh, to thee 
No one must talk of rivalrie ; 
For never hath the glorious sunne, 
Thine equal, Agnes, shone upon." 

The remains of Ashworth Hall afford a pleasing specimen of that 
style of domestic architecture which has in its many peculiarities a dis- 
tinctness and beauty which, both to the antiquarian and to the lover of 
the picturesque, gives it a more than ordinary character of interest. 
Structures of this class are principally found in those of our counties 
where building stone is difficult and expensive to procure, but they are 
also found, as in the present instance, in districts abounding in available 
rocks and quarries. This clearly proves that taste and choice, and not 
necessity, did in numerous cases influence the builders in their selection of 
this peculiar style; and the magnitude of the timbers, strongly framed 



128 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

together, and used in the most gratuitous and unsparing abundance, proves 
that the early accounts of the dense forests and greenwood glades of once 
merry England, were an established fact, and no fable. The date of many 
of these timber-framed and curiously-pargetted structures, is very remote. 
Bishop King's palace in Oxford, similar in its architecture, dates in the 
year 1350 ; but to many of them even a still earlier period may be 
assumed. In the present instance nothing remains to guide us, but, 
judging from general appearances, we should not hesitate to affix a date 
at least coeval with the wars of the Roses. Parts of the buildings may 
be still more ancient, for there is a diversity of style and character 
visible. The lower windows of the pargetted portion seem to have 
looked into the quadrangle, an arrangement so foreign to cheerfulness or 
comfort, that we may well refer the date to times when defence and 
security were points of supreme consideration. There is, indeed, a 
similarity so striking between this style and that adopted by the Saxons 
themselves, that we should not feel that we were drawing largely on the 
credulity of our readers, were we to assert that, from the Saxon times 
to the reign of Elizabeth, there was no cessation in the construction of 
buildings of this description, and that many of the timber houses now 
remaining, are in reality much more ancient than they are generally 
supposed to be. The Saxons, as we know from their own designs, 
framed their houses of large and roughly-hewn beams of oak, facing 
the quoins or corners with stone, as also the arches of the windows and 
doorways. The roofs were of rough slate, and the windows small, either 
strongly latticed with " riftes of oak chekerwise," or fitted with panels 
of horn or glass. In what, then, do these structures differ from many 
which in these days we attribute to a much later period ? 

The manor of Ashworth was for many generations a portion of the 
possessions of a family bearing the same name. Little, however, beyond 
tradition, is known of its early history and vicissitudes. Much of the 
kingdom of Northumbria was either so remote, or so depopulated by 
intestine wars, or, what is more probable, was so turbulent, as to render 
its survey difficult and dangerous ; it finds no place therefore in Dooms- 
day Book : of all Lancashire, the district between the Ribble and Mersey 
are alone mentioned. In the civil wars of the seventeenth century, the 
proprietor of this manor, together with the Ashtons of Middleton, and 
many other of the neighbouring gentry, sided with the Parliament. No 
sooner was the mineral wealth of this portion of the county of Lancas- 
ter discovered, than most of the ancient lordships and manors changed 
hands, this among the number ; and it is a curious remark, that scarcely 



f .*j0%&k 




Alexander deHelu 1172 




eit de Hilton, 132L Alexander de Hiltoun,132S. 




r de Hilt oun .1389. 




i im : : ^y.. 



HYLTON CASTLE. 129 

one of the many estates* once bearing the same name with their pro- 
prietors, is in the possession or occupation of the ancient race. The 
local traditions are fast dying away ; the old manor houses are converted 
into farm buildings, or even into dwellings for the poor, while the mag- 
nificent, but less interesting, structures of modern wealth usurp their 
places, dooming them to forgetfulness and neglect. Descendants of 
the ancient proprietors of Ashworth Hall still survive, and one of the 
elder branches is settled in Hampshire. John Ashworth, Esq., of Eland, 
in the West Riding of York, died possessed of property in the townships 
of Whitworth and Shawforth, which are in the immediate vicinity of the 
ancient residence, and in all probability parcel of the original possessions 
of the name. The manor itself passed by purchase into the hands of 
the distinguished family of Egerton in Cheshire. 



^nlton Castle, co. 2Burf)am. 

" The noblest descent that I know any family in England." 

Carter's Honor Redivivus. 

The feelings produced on the mind by a stroll over the park and 
ancient terraces of Hylton, are of no ordinary character. They bring with 
them meditations on fallen glories, blighted hopes, thoughts of decay and 
ruin and the tomb. There, in its amphitheatre of hills, in the soft vale of 
Wear, on greensward whereon the chariot passeth not, stands the castle, 
neglected, chiefly tenantless, but entire in its massiveness, and in spite of 
its modern additions, presenting a front of unusual simplicity and gran- 
deur in design. Go upon the roof, and a scene almost unrivalled bursts 
on the visitor. There are the turrets with their staircases, the bold broad 
machicolations, even the guard's room (surmounting a square tower pro- 
jecting from the centre of the eastern front) remains perfectly entire, and 
nothing but a few armed men is wanted to complete the picture of by-gone 
baronial power. In plan, Hylton is an oblong of 66 by 36 feet, having 
four octagonal turrets surmounting its western front and two circular ones 
at the angles of the eastern front, which has also the square tower just named. 
The octagonal turrets are 9 feet 4 inches wide internally, and are deco- 
rated with corbel heads, and figures at the top in all attitudes, some being 
combatant, perhaps intended to deceive an approaching enemy, who 

* The Townleys of Townley, and the Hopwoods of Hopwood, are hononrable 
exceptions. 

K 



]30 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

could hardly tell at some distance whether the garrison were on the alert 
or not. The machicolations, or hanging parapets, were of course for the 
benefit of archers, who, protected by the turret, could shoot down arrows 
on any persons who reached the foot of the castle. The castle contains 
five stories. In the eleventh year of Bishop Neville, the manor of Hylton 
contained one hall and four chambers, one chapel, one kitchen, and one 
house constructed of stone called le yatehous. 

In 1559 are mentioned the great chamber, the green chamber, the 
middle chamber, the new chamber, the gallery, the wardrobe, the cellar 
within the parlour, the parlour, the chamber over the hall door, the 
"lawe chekar," the kitchen, the larder, the tower, the hall, the buttery, 
garner, and the barne. 

All authors allow the Saxon descent of the fair -haired and blue-eyed 
face of Hylton, but we know not how far the earlier stories of Adam 
Hylton, who gave a massy crucifix to the Abbess of St. Hilda at Hartle- 
pool, sculptured with his two bars ; or of Lancelot, the partizan of the 
Conqueror; or of Henry, who built the castle in 1072 are to be believed. 
Si ward, the great Earl of Northumbria, so charmingly portrayed in the 
Macbeth of " Avon's sweetest swan," had a bear for his grandfather, his 
father having bear's ears, but the house of Hylton gravely states its 
descent to have been from a raven which flew from the north, and a fair 
young Saxon maiden whom her father had immured in a lonely tower, by 
the banks of Wear's saintly stream, to protect from the advances of a 
Danish chieftain. The legend perchance means nothing more than that 
the Dane, over whom the black raven floated in his banner, got the lady 
after all. It may be that he was called Raven, as there is Ravensworth, 
the town of Raven, not very far off. 

His fetters of ice the broad Baltic is breaking, 

In the deep glens of Denmark sweet summer is waking, 

And, blushing amidst her pavilion of snows, 

Discloses her chalice the bright Lapland rose. 

The winds in the caverns of winter are bound ; 

Yet the leaves that the tempest has strewn on the ground 

Are whirling in magical eddies around. 

For deep in the forest where wild flowers are blushing, 

Where the stream from its cistern of rock-spar is gushing, 

The magic of Lapland the wild winds is hushing. 

Why slumbers the storm in the caves of the north ? — 

When, when shall the carrier of Odin go forth ? 

Loud, loud laughed the hags as the dark raven flew ; 
They had sprinkled his wings with the mirk midnight dew 



HYLTON CASTLE. 131 

That was brushed in Blockula from cypress and yew. 

That raven in its charmed breast 

Bears a sprite that knows no rest — 

(When Odin's darts, in darkness hurled, 

Scattered lightnings through the world, 

Then beneath the withering spell, 

Harold, son of Eric, fell) — 

Till lady, unlikely thing, I trow, 

Print three kisses on his brow, 

And smooth his glossy sable crest, 

And bid the bird in her bosom rest — 
Herald of ruin, death, and flight, 

Where will the carrier of Odin alight ? 

****** 

Edith in her saddest mood 

Has climbed the bartizan stair ; 
No sound comes from the stream or wood, 

No breath disturbs the air. 
The summer clouds are motionless, 

And she, so sad, so fair, 

Seems like a lily rooted there 
In lost forgotten loneliness. 
A gentle breath comes from the vale, 
And a sound of life is on the gale, 
And see a raven on the wing, 
Circling around in airy ring, 
Hovering about in doubtful fright — 
Where will the carrier of Odin alight ? 

The raven has lit on the flag-staff high 

That tops the dungeon-tower, 
But he has caught fair Edith's eye, 
And gently, coyly, venturing nigh, 

He flutters round her bower : 
That shone in that sweet young Saxon face. 
For he trusted the soft and maiden grace, 
And now he has perched on her willow wand, 
And tries to smooth his raven note, 
And sleeks his glossy raven coat, 

To court the maiden's hand ; 
And now, caressing, and caressed, 
The raven is lodged in Edith's breast. 

"'Tis innocence and youth that makes 
In Edith's fancy such mistakes." 

K 2 



132 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

But that maiden kiss hath holy power 
O'er planet and sigillary hour ; 
The elvish spell has lost its charms, 
And a Danish knight is in Edith's arms !* 

The Raven's race, even to their last and " good Baron," retained the 
bright blue eye and the fair hair of the Saxon ; and the Hyltons (or 
rather Heltons, for like the Baron's line, the latter was the original name), 
of Burton, in Westmorland, who to the saltires of the Usworth junior 
branch, added the annulets so common in Westmorland armoury, pre- 
served the same characteristics. The same may be said of the South 
Durham Hyltons, who were descended from the same stock as those of 
Burton, but from the collateral line of Helton Bacon, in an eminent degree. 
When William Freeman Hilton, a younger brother of Henry, ultimus 
suorum, was at school, he was famed for his splendid flaxen hair, which 
hung half way down his back in crisped and wiggish fashion, and such a 
handsome young fellow was he, that an old yeoman, on his being re- 
called to his recollection, exclaimed, " Why bless ye, they can't mak sike 
now !" 

A collateral relation of this latter race was Cuthbert Hilton, famous for 
illicit marriages in the midst of Tees. He made, it is said, the parties to 
jump over a broomstick, and muttered 

My blessing on your pates 

And your groats in my purse, 
You are never the better 

And I am never the worse. 

This is, however, merely a parody on an older rhyme, for in Scot's 
" Discovery of Witchcraft" a poor woman is commemorated who cured all 
diseases by muttering certain words over the person affected, for which 
she always received one penny and a loaf of bread. At length, terrified by 
menaces of flames both in this world and the next, she owned that her 
whole conjuration consisted in these potent rhymes, 

Thy loaf in my hand, 

And thy penny in my purse, 
Thou art never the better 

And I am never the worse. 

Of the high priest's quaintly-named sons, Abraham, Job, Solomon, 
David, Cuthbert, and Alexander, the eldest was father of that famous 
David of Durham, of whom Ritson says, 

* Surtees. 



HYLTON CASTLE. 133 

Hilton my hair did dress, who beats 
The world you know, in shaving feats. 

and for whom some waggish antiquary concocted a new emblazoning 
" Argent, two razors in saltire proper, upon a chief gules a comb argent — 
Crest, upon a barber's block a wig proper " 

The first Hylton on actual record is " Romanus the Knight of Helton," 
who held three knight's fees in 1166,* of ancient feoffment, an expression 
evidently alluding to a long previous settlement. His successor, Alex- 
ander de Helton, seals with a demi-lion passant, and the common bearing 
az. two bars arg., simple as it may seem, is therefore not the original coat. 
It appears in right gallant array on the east front surmounted by a helmet, 
splendidly diapered, on which is the odd crest Moses's head horned in 
profile. The west front presents a most sumptuous heraldic display. 
Lowermost under a fretted canopy is a banner supported by two lions ram- 
pant, -)" charged with the bars, above which are the coats of Aervaux, 
or Neville, Bishop Skirlaw, or Vescy, Percy and Lucy, Hylton and Las- 
celles, Lumley, Grey, Eure, Vescy, Felton, Heron, Fitz-Randal, Wash- 
ington, Ogle, Lilburn or Ros, Surtees and Bowes. Among these is the 
royal banner of England and France, a fitting symbol of the loyalty and 
devotedness of the race on whose castle it appears. A letter found in 
the papers of the last Baron, states that of the Hyltons, one was slain at 
Feversham under the Conqueror, one in Normandy, one at Metz, three in 
the Holy Wars under Richard I., one in the same under Edward I., three 
at Bourdeaux under the Black Prince, one at Agincourt, two at Berwick 
against the Scots, two at the battle of St. Albans, five at Market Bos- 
worth, and four at Flodden field. A curious record exists as to Flodden. 
For some reason, the Baron of Hylton refused to go with the rest of the 
Bishoprick men and the banner of St. Cuthbert, but went at the head of 
his own retainers in true feudal state ; and for this purpose we find that 
he borrowed a banner, a standard, with the coat armour of the full and 
whole arms of the Hyltons which had belonged to his father, from the 
convent of Durham, which he promised to redeliver, his business being 
conveniently done, which promise it is to be presumed was fulfilled, as 
he escaped with his life. It is possible that these warlike appendages 
had fallen to the church as his father's mortuary, but it is more probable 
they had been pawned ; and he was not the only Hylton who was in a 
similar predicament along with other noble families, for in 1417-8 the 

* Boldon Buke. 
f Visible in the view of 1728, but now hidden by a modern porch. 



134 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

same convent held one basin and ewer of silver, with the arms of the Lord 
of Hylton, in pledge for 58s. In the inventory of Sir Thomas Hilton's 
goods in 1559 (he was governor of Tynemouth castle) we find he had 
in the tower "8 complete harnes from the Kne upp £13 6s. 8d," but 
there was a grander decoration than armour in the family then, for he had 
one gold chain weighing 33^ozs. and valued at £100, an immense sum in 
those days, and which he carefully bequeaths with his plate to his wife for 
her life, to descend afterwards to his heirs as an heirloom, upon their 
entering into sureties in £1000. 

In 1488, Sir Ralph Hilton was engaged in France, and was probably 
the same Ralph who somewhat before was Captain of Dunbar. The 
family was naturally much mixed up in Border affairs. A Baron of Hylton 
after gallant exploits was taken prisoner at Otterburn in 1388, and 
another was amongst the chief leaders with Surrey in repelling the Scotch 
in 1497. A ludicrous occurrence took place in 1522. At that time the 
old ballad rhyme, 

Scots never were true nor ever will be 
To Lord, nor Lady, nor fair England, 

was more thought of than at present, and Robert Whitfield, a Northum- 
brian, having gone to reside at Wadhurst in Sussex, suffered much 
annoyance and reproach for being a Scot, and in fact had fallen into the 
stocks and prison. From these undesirable liabilities, the royal officers 
were willing to bail him till he could bring evidence of being born in 
England, and the aggrieved victim petitioned the Prior of Durham and 
Sir William Hilton to make diligent inquiry concerning his birthplace, 
who after swearing aged men, made their certificate accordingly ; and it 
is to be hoped that Whitfield's brogue embroiled him in no more troubles 
of a similar nature. 

The Pilgrimage of Grace for once swerved a Hylton from his duty. 
Sir Thomas* joined the men of the Bishoprick in resisting the king's 

* Sir Thomas was very intimate with Pr. Bulleyn, a notable practitioner of Durham, 
who cured the Baron's lady of a tympany, and dedicated his " Government of Health" 
to him. The Baron died of a fever, but William Hylton of Biddick, his brother, 
caused Bulleyn in most shamefull wise to be arraigned for his murder, from which 
strait the worthy doctor was with justice delivered, though he was still much troubled 
by him; indeed he appears to have been a very extraordinaiy character, for, says the 
doctor, his " malice doth the lesse molest mee, being a stranger to him, seying hee 
hath vexed a ladye which was his owne brother's wyfe, whose shame, losse, yea and 
bloode, hee hath soughte, whyche brother's wyfe redeemed mutch of hys lande from 
losse, in lendyng him a great summe of money, and when this man should thankfully 



HYLTON CASTLE. 135 

encroachments on the ancient faith, but seems to have obtained a ready 
pardon, since he soon afterwards was directed by the King to make a 
return of all those within the bishoprick, whose revenue exceeded £40 
per ann., so that they should " dispose themselves to take the order of 
knighthood," to which honour it appears they felt very little inclination, 
and he was Governor of Tynemouth, under Philip and Mary. The lesson 
was well improved. In the rising of the north in 1569, Sir William 
Hilton was one of the very few northern gentlemen, who (probably from 
his intimate connexion with the family of Bowes) adhered heartily to 
the Queen, into whose service he brought 100 horse, and to whom he 
lent £50. 

The loyalty of the Hyltons at last proved one great help to their ruin, 
though that was begun by the melancholy Baron Henry Hylton, who in 
1640-1 devised his estate to the City Chamber of London for 99 years, 
charged with charities innumerable, but only with an annuity of £100 to 
his heirs, who at the expiration of the term were to regain possession, 
provided the claimant should not claim to be the issue of the testator's 
own body. This proviso is several times repeated with almost insane 
precaution, in the most piteous manner, by the Baron, who " declares to 
his griefe, that if anie person shall pretend to be a child of my body 
begotten, which I hope noe body will be soe impudent and shameless : I 
hereby calling God and man to witness that I have no child living of my 
body begotten, and if any such shall pretend so to be, I hereby declaire 
he or she so doing to be a very imposture." It matters not what led him 
to desert the seat of his ancestors,* and bury himself in the seclusion of 

have repayed this lady her money, then he gratified her, as he did me." We cannot 
wonder at Bulleyn's strong language against his malicious foe, who " that with the 
covetous Ahab, he might have through false witnes and perjury obtayned by the 
counsele of Jezabell, a vineyard by the pryce of blood," diligently endeavoured to 
bring him to a shameful death, and who after the shame had fallen on his own head, 
basely hired some ruffians to assassinate him. Even after the failure of this scheme, 
the indefatigable Hylton arrested the doctor and kept him long time in prison. But 
he was only the chief of the onslaught; some persons of genteel extraction were ac- 
complices, especially R. Bellisis of Farrow, an ungrateful patient, whom Bulleyn had 
cured from the palsy by the herb Bellis (the daisy) and other good medicines, and 
whom he mentions in making an end of Bellis, as Bellisis who would have ended him. 
Margaret, William's wife, perhaps Bulleyn's Jezabel, possessed a " pare of tables and 
a chessboard, and the men 2s," as valued in the inventory (8 Eliz.) after her death. 
There were also two " coytts of plate" and " one stuff cote for warr." 

* After all, he was not the only one of his race who tired of the sunny slopes of the 
Wear, for Stevens (Monast. i. 124) mentions that Robert Hylton, Baron Hylton, took 
the habit of a friar minor in the monastery of Bridgenorth, in the custody of Worcester, 



136 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Billinghurst and Mitchel Grove in Sussex, accompanied only by one 
trusty kinsman, Mr. Nathaniel Hilton " our faitheful and painefull pastor," 
as the good registrar of Billinghurst calls him. It might be " upon some 
discontents between him and his wife, they having lived apart near 20 
years," or " upon some discontents between him and his brother, under 
pretence of charity to severall parishes, whereby he was to merit pardon 
for 30 years vicious life led with the Lady Jane Shelley,"* that he made 
his extraordinary will : one thing is certain, that he would have writhed 
in agony had he seen Guillim, in the true spirit of the old heralds, 

Who made full oft the son beget the father, 
And gave to maiden ladies fruitful issue, 

coolly write about the " great grandson of this generous gentleman." 

Henry's brother, Robert, survived him but a few months, when John, the 
seventh brother of the melancholy baron, succeeded to the shadow of an 
estate, and perilled it in the royal cause. The fatherland of the Hyltons 
was plundered by all parties. Yet though the heir then starved, he would 
not give up his rights, and after the Restoration an amicable decree was 
obtained, the City of London being wearied out by contests with the 
consorts of the two dowager Baronesses of Hilton. The son of the gallant 
loyalist, a prudent cavalier, then resumed his property, but the wasted 
revenue was totally unequal to the charges. Henry his successor 
complained to the Court, that "hee and his wife and children 
have nothing to live on ; and all the payments were at last reduced to one 
third, still leaving serious burthens. •f In 1668 Bishop Cosin had expres- 
sed his sorrow for " our good Baron Hilton" (John junior), and wished 
to know what good ivorks he had done or ordered to be done, after his 
decease, but here the good Baron's ill ancestors had been beforehand with 
him ; and he very wisely concluded that the most charitable work he 

and was buried before the altar of the Blessed Virgin on the north side of the church. 
He seems to be identical with the Robert, who begot a son not half so good, as he 
encouraged thefts from the poor monks of Wearniouth, and was father of two sons 
still worse, of whom hereafter. 

* Lady Jane Shelley was his executrix, He left her £1000 to make him "a fair 
tun i be like in fashion to the tumbe of Dr. Dunne," over his resting place in St. Paul's, 
which she never did. 

f The following entry is rich in the extreme. " Baron Hilton's money was by 
Richard Baddely and John Simpson, churchwardens for the years 1676-1677 recovered 
for the poor of this parish, £6 per annum, which was wrongfully detained from the said 
poor by the Maior and Aldermen of the City of Durham, and charged 8s. (hey drunk 
in blew clarett to the poores accompt" (St. Mary-le-Bow Par. Reg. Durham.) 



HYLTON CASTLE. 137 

could do was to leave his estate, such as it was, to his natural 
heirs. 

From this period, says Surtees, the Barons of Hylton retreated without 
degradation of blood or of honour into the quiet ranks of private gentry. 
Three successive chiefs of Hylton were not more respected for their 
ancient and undoubted descent, than for the prudent and unostentatious 
simplicity with which they supported the fallen fortunes of their house, 
without meanness and without vain regret or misplaced pride. They 
received rather than claimed from the general courtesy of the country, 
the acknowledged rank of the first untitled gentry of the North, of 
noblesse without the peerage. Their name always stands first in 
Episcopal commissions and grand jury lists, and in 1669 Mr. Arden 
adduces as a superlative instance of the unseemly pride of Dean Carleton 
and his daughters, that he had seated himself at the Quarter Sessions 
above Baron Hylton, to the great disgust and reluctancy of the country 
gentry, and that moreover the young lady Carletons had crowded them- 
selves into a pew in the cathedral, before Baron Hylton's daughters. 
The last Baron, a man of mild and generous disposition, and hospitable to 
a fault (as the Ettricks with " splitting headaches" could well testify), 
is still remembered with a mingled sentiment of personal respect and of 
that popular feeling, which even ill conduct can scarcely extinguish, 
towards the last representative of a long and honourable line. His 
portrait occupied the panel above the fire-place in the deserted dining- 
room, and presented a fair, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired, pleasant-looking 
gentleman in a suit of blue and gold, with a mild composed countenance 
and somewhat high cheek-bones.* There were many other short, round, 
companionable looking faces on canvass, which by no means belied the 
family character. 

The last baron dying without issue, the representation of the blood of 
Hylton passed to the heirs of his sisters, the Musgraves and Briseos. 
His nephew, Sir Richard Musgrave, was his devisee, and assumed the 

* This and the other characteristics of the Hylton face are strongly developed in a 
beautiful portrait of John Scott Hylton, Esq., of Lapal House near the Leasowes, who 
claimed descent from the Durham Stock, now in the possession of W. Hylton Long- 
stafife, gent., of Darlington. He is dressed in the usual costume of George the Third's 
reign, with exquisitely limned frills round his wrists, and a very small and white 
hand, and holds a specimen from his large collection of coins. Hylton was an elegant 
poet and scholar, and a bosom-friend of his neighbour, Shenstone, whose letters to 
him are very amusing. Miniature portraits of himself and brother, his locket con- 
taining the Baronial coat of arms, and other relics, are also in the hands of the possessor 
of the large portrait. 



138 TH E LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

name of Hylton, his daughter and heiress marrying William Jollifte, 
Esq., M.P. for Petersfield. By Act of Parliament, 23 Geo. II., the 
estates were sold, the castle now heing the possession of John Bowes, 
Esq., of Streatham. The family estate included, at its highest point of 
elevation, the manors of Hylton, Barmston, Grindon, Ford, Clowcroft, 
North Biddick, Great Us worth and Follonsby in Durham ; Carnaby and 
Wharnam Percy in Yorkshire ; Elryngton and Woodhall in Northum- 
berland ; and Aldstone Moor in Northumberland and Cumberland ; with 
the advowsons of Kyrkhaulgh and Monk Wearmouth. At an early 
period, the Hyltons possessed other large estates in Northumberland, 
derived from the heiress of the Saxon house of Tyson, whose ancestor 
Gilbert was slain on the part of Harold. Aldstone Moor was the estate 
of the Veteripontes, whose bearing was always quartered with Hylton, 
whatever other quarterings might be omitted. Through the Lumleys, 
the Hyltons were descended from the Plantagenets. 

The Hyltons of Jamaica, descended from the South Shield branch, 
which originated in an uncle of the secluded Baron, are now presumed 
to be the male representatives of this ancient family. Ralph Hylton, 
born 1710, preferred emigration to a fruitless struggle with poverty at 
home, but his son visited England in the vain hope of laying a success- 
ful claim to the estates of Hylton. He was kindly received by Sir 
Isaac Heard, and George Allan, Esq., the indefatigable antiquary of the 
Grange near Darlington, and returned dispirited, but not broken-hearted 
like his father, to Jamaica, living to satisfy himself that, though the 
estates are alienated for ever, yet the descendants of Ralph are the 
legitimate male representatives of the blood and honours of the Hyltons 
of Hylton Castle. 

Many other families lay claim to descent from them, and the wish to 
descend from such a family is a pardonable vanity. The Hultons or 
Hyltons of Park, in Lancashire, though separate at least from the reign 
of Henry II., were one of these, being named in an old Durham entail ; 
and in George the First's time, Baron Hylton used this presumed con- 
nexion as a topic in some very engaging letters to Squire Hulton, profes- 
sedly with the laudable design of procuring a good husband for one of 
his sisters. 

The castle is built or altered in the early perpendicular style, about 
the time of Richard II., probably about 1389, when Sir Ralph de 
Lumley obtained a license to re-edify and embattle his manor-house at 
Lumley, as the two buildings bear a close resemblance to each other, 
though Hylton is richer in detail and of finer character. Our plate 



HYLTON CASTLE. 139 

gives it as it appeared in the last Baron's time, before its final Italianiza- 
tion. He blocked up the elegant window beneath the arms, as well as 
the Tudor light at one side of the flag-staff, and hid the fine and war- 
like doorway with a modern Gothic porch, which is of a semi-Moorish 
style, and exhibits a curious attempt at reviving the early English dog- 
tooth ornament. Against the eastern front is a similar porch, and two 
projections of the same style, which, however impure, has a gorgeous 
effect on entering, where a passage from door to door presents itself, 
vaulted in Gothic fashion — (query — if not the original vaulting) — but 
moulded in very rich manner ; smaller passages have the same Moresque 
appearance. The splendidly decorated ceilings which formerly graced 
the saloon and other apartments, were executed in 1738 by one 
Frankini, an Italian ; the dimensions of the former room are twelve yards 
by eight and a foot, and 24 feet high. The last Baron also erected 
at least one of the modern wings which now cause the frontage 
(one-hundred and seventy feet) to be nearly three times the original 
length, but still they are unable to destroy the simple grandeur of the 
original composition. By the way, between the central turrets of the 
west front, are the remains of two representations of a knight in mortal 
conflict with a winged serpent or dragon, which twists its poisonous 
folds round his leg, probably referring to some long forgotten feat, which 
would fitly form a companion to the neighbouring legend of the Worm 
of Lambton. 

In the gardens are some of the finest apples in the county. Hanging 
woods, long avenues, terraces and slopes, surrounded the baronial seat, 
but all is in ruin and decay, the house tenanted in scraps, and generally 
empty, and enlivened only with unearthly sounds of the whistling wind, 
and the echoes of strangers. The very gate is obstructed, and the 
pillars are crowned by some huge martlet's temple, which wonder how 
they came or what business they have there, and have a singular and 
uncanny look. About 1832, the Castle is said to have been the retreat 
of Armstrong, one of the murderers of Mr. Fairless, a worthy magistrate 
of South Shields, the deed being committed at Jarrow Stake in open 
daylight ; and in spite of a four-hundred pound reward offered, he es- 
caped abroad, after skulking in the ghostly hall of the Hyltons. 1 

The chapel of Hylton stands a little to the N. E. of the castle on a 
mound, and is of a peculiar plan, consisting of a nave, chancel, and two 
porches, or transepts of a semi-hexagonal form, which open to the body 
of the chapel by depressed arches. The chapel seems originally to have 
been early florid of the same date as the castle, but has been altered in 



140 THJS LANDS Or ENGLAND. 

the renaissance period, and subsequently Italianized by the last baron, a 
small campanile turret being a conspicuous feature. The handsome stall 
work to which books were fixed by silver chains in Mr. Temple's time is 
utterly ruined, the windows and doors are all broken, and the little sanc- 
tuary in which the lords of Hylton are sleeping, presents a scene of utter 
and piteous desolation. The feelings produced by a gaze on the pavement 
which covers so many members of their departed race, without a single effigy 
or monument of any kind to mark their burial, are of a peculiarly melan- 
choly nature. Visions of long strings of tenantry following the corpse 
to its burial, the maiden to her bridal, or the baron to his prayers, crowd 
upon the mind. And it may, in its sadness, accompany Howitt in his 
visits, and picture the aged sextoness of Houghton-le-Spring Church 
when in her anguish she exclaimed, "Nay, I had but one child, one son!" 
He did not ask her if he, like her husband, were dead, for he saw it 
plainly enough in her face and in her stooping figure, that was fixed as 
steadily in a sorrowful rigidity, as that of the old crusader in the church 
below. She drew her apron across her eyes, and then told him that her 
son was a fine, hearty, young fellow a carpenter, who was getting on 
bravely in his business, and went to fit up the pews in Hylton chapel, of 
which he had the job. They had a merry-making when the work was 
done, and having taken rather too much, he went out at the wrong door, 
and walked in the dark over a precipice into the glen below, and was 
found next morning dead ! 

The chapel is mentioned as early as 1157, but all tithes, &c, of Hylton, 
were to be paid to the cell of Wearmouth, as the mother church, the chap- 
lain's salary arising entirely from personal offerings of the Barons. This 
circumstance was perhaps not very pleasing to the gallant Hyltons, and 
the grievances the poor monks suffered at their hands were of no gentle 
sort. In one instance they are quite ludicrous. A Scotch fellow, called 
John Potts, had, it seems, been stealing the cell-keeper's hay and corn, 
and being admonished, said he would continue to feed his horse there, 
and after despituous words said to the keeper, laid hands in violence upon 
the clerk acolyte within the sanctuary. Nevertheless he had the impu- 
dence to come to the same kirk of Monkwearmouth to shrive him, at 
which the keeper told the parish priest that he had no power to assail the 
bad Scot, he being cursed by the common law, whereupon he and his fel- 
lows at the quire door with " lang pikyd staffes and lang daggers," as- 
saulted the keeper and priest, and " raufe (violently seized) fra tham a 
silvered mahylyn." Well, soon after William, the young heir of Hylton 
came also to be shriven, and misinformed of the evil deeds of Potts, with 



HYLTON CAST.LE. 141 

high and stern countenance entered the quire, " withoutyn ony prayer 
or reverence theer made or shewid to the blessid sacrament," and said 
" What, maystres make yhe here ?" and thereupon sware a great oath, 
that there was not a hole there from which he would not pull John Both, 
monk, and bind his feet under a horse's belly and send him to Durham. 
He also challenged the keeper, and asked in " stoore" manner " who 
was yi, Syre ?" (who are you, sir?) and then put off the poor keeper's 
hood " in till" his neck, against his will, who fearing more mishaps, with- 
drew with his comrade in quick style. But William came again and laid 
hands on William Lyham, Master of Wearmouth, in the quire, and 
" poulid off his hode, to grete shame and reprove." Besides, his uncle 
Alexander kept back the horse and gown of his father William, some time 
Baron,* which were the corpse-present to the church, and winked with 
his late father at certain spoliations by their servants of the Prior's cornt 
hay, while Baron Robert, the father of the hood-puller, withheld the 
corpse-present of his wife (a fair Clifford). All this was in the 15th 
century ; and now for a truly Baronial letter : — 

" A TRES HONORE Sr ET Rev'eNT PlER IN DIEU LE PRIOR DE DlJRESME SOIT 

done. — Wirschipfull Sir, and reverent fadir in god, I recommende me unto yow, 
and for als mekill as Thomas my prest was at you at Durham, touchyng an 
arrest at was made of the teynd hay and corn at Hylton, and hilke was like to 
hafe bene lost, that was made be a man of myne called William Hall, for cer- 
taigne dett aght to hym be your brothir the Maistre of Wermouth. And at the 
reverence of yow, be the message at said Thomas my prest broght to me fro you, 
/ gart lowse the arest at was made and put my man from that avantage that he 
suld hafe had in my Cort be that arest, and put hym to gret hynderance and 
yit ther es none end made with hym, of whilke me marvayles, wharefore I 

* This William had a daughter and granddaughter, both named Matilda, who are 
devisees of Matilda Bowes of Dalden, widow, in 1420, in this odd fashion. " I be- 
queath to Matilda daughter of the Baron of Hylton, my goddaughter, one Romance 
boke is called the Gospells. Also I bequeath to Matilda daughter of Robert de Hylton, 
Chivaler, one Romance boke." She also leaves to other parties the " boke with the 
knotts," "a book that is called Tristram," and " one blak primer." The meaning 
of the Romance of the Gospells so simply coupled with that of Tristram, may admit 
of doubt. The Lady of Dalden may have met with one of WyclifFe's Bibles, and 
conceived the Gospels to be a series of fabulous adventures, in which our Saviour 
and his Apostles acted and moralized like the goodly personages in the ancient 
mysteries and games, which exceed anything that can be imagined ; or it is possible 
the word Romance merely refers to the book being in English, though the suspi- 
cious company it keeps favours the former notion. Anyhow the passage is extremely 
curious, especially when viewed in connexion with Miss Maud's relatives, so re- 
fractory to ministers of the Church of Rome. 



142 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

pray you at ye will send to the said Maistre of Warmouth, to make on eynd 
with my said man in hast and delay him no langer, and if he will noght, I 
pray yow hold me excusid what hapyn afterward, and what like yow to do in 
this matter, I pray you send me word writen be the bryoger of this, and Wir- 
schipfull sir and reverent fadir in god the holy Trinite hafe you in thir kepyng. 
Writen in hast at Hilton, on Monday next before Saynt Lenard day. 

Be Robt. Baron or Hilton." 

There was a chantry to St. Mary within the chapel of Hylton (St. 
Katherine), the foundation of which, without a license, caused one of the 
many squabbles between the Barons and the cell of Monkwearmouth. 

Various coats are sculptured on the chapel. The crest appears with 
the head of Moses, radiated (not horned) and full fronted, and both 
lions and stags appear as supporters, the latter of very rude design, more 
like horned pigs than anything else. On the eastern front of the castle 
too, there is the cognisance of a stag couchant gorged and chained, which 
is said traditionally to have been granted the fabulous Henry of 1072. 
Supporters are borne by prescription by many old but unennobled fami- 
lies of the north. The Hyltons were summoned to Parliament in 23, 
24, 25, Edw. I., and 6 and 9, Edw. III. ; indeed, Banks states that a 
record of Parliament, posterior to the latter king's reign, mentions among 
the nobles then present " Le Baron de Hilton." If a barony were created 
by these summonses, it is now in abeyance between the families of Brisco 
and JollifFe, but it is probable the title had reference rather to the fact of 
the Hyltons being Barons of the Bishoprick, as they certainly were, sit- 
ting in pleno placito apud Dunelm. The Vernons of the Palatinate of 
Chester were, it is believed, called Barons for a similar reason, and they, 
like the Hyltons, survived all their contemporary chivalry. We remem- 
ber seeing somewhere, that a claim by the Jolliffes, senior co-heir of the 
blood of Hylton, to revive the title, was at one period favourably enter- 
tained by the ministers of the day ; but as it was considered invidious or 
injudicious to restore so ancient a barony, George III. was preferably 
disposed to a new creation ; which was by no means in accordance with 
the views of the father of the late Hylton JollifFe, Esq. When pressed 
by the late Earl of Liverpool to accept a baronetcy, the suggestion 
appeared to Mr. Jolliffe to convey something so much like an insult, that 
he is reported to have made the following sarcastic reply : " Your pro- 
posal, my Lord, if acceded to, would only enable me to do by patent, 
what I already practise as a gentleman — namely, walk out of a room 
after the very numerous tribe who have recently been elected as fit sub- 
jects for such a dignity." 



HYLTON CASTLE. 143 

The idea of a labouring spirit attached to houses and families is of 
remote origin, and the stories told in different parts of the country, bear 
a remarkable resemblance to each other. The Scotch call them Brown- 
ies, the English, Pixies, &c, and Gewase of Tilbury, in the 12th cen- 
tury, Portuni. We will now touch upon the traditions anent that most 
famous goblin of this class, which has become popular enough to cause 
Sam. Roxby to introduce it in a melo-drama, intituled The Cauld Lad of 
Hilton, He was seldom seen, but was heard nightly by the servants who 
slept in the great hall, the scene of his pranks being the kitchen. Par- 
taking of the crackiness of the family he haunted, he amused himself by 
throwing an orderly kitchen into complete confusion, breaking plates 
and dishes, turning tables over, and hurling the pewter in all directions 
with immense satisfaction. One night, however, a happy discovery was 
made. The kitchen, by some accident, had been left in disarray, and in 
the morning the servants found that the lad had modified his labours to 
the circumstances. The apartment was neat as an old maid's parlour, 
and, of course, the practice attended with such a happy result was adopted 
ever after. 

Still, notwithstanding the good nature of this poor harmless creature, 
who like the Scotch Brownies took pleasure in discharging the task 
which he thought would be acceptable to the family, he was considered 
a somewhat uncanny sort of labourer, and the servants resolved to 
banish him from his long-loved haunts. But like the sparrow, who said, 

Oh no ! I won't make a stew, 

And my giblets shan't make you a little pie too, 

the Cauld Lad had an inkling of their intentions, and was frequently 
heard to exclaim in the dead of the night, in melancholy strain, the fol- 
lowing consolatory stanzas : — 

Wae 's me ! Wae 's me ! ! 
The acorn is not yet 
Fallen from the tree, 
That 's to grow the wood 
That 's to make the cradle 
That 's to rock the bairn 
That 's to grow to a man 
That 's to lay me. 

However, he counted without his host, for the offer of anything be- 
yond a slight dish of something to drink, infallibly causes the disappear- 
ance of a Brownie for ever. The Hylton domestics laid a green cloak 



144 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

and hood before the kitchen fire, and sat up watching at a prudent dis- 
tance. At 12 o'clock the sprite glided in, stood by the glowing embers 
and surveyed the garments very attentively, tried them on, seemed well 
satisfied with the figure he cut, and frisked about for some time in great 
delight, cutting several summersets and gambadoes. Milton's fiend 
vanished " ere the first cock his matin rang,'' but the Lad was so charmed 
that he stayed in his friskings till he heard the first cock, when he 
twitched his mantle tight about him, and disappeared with the usual 
valediction : 

Here *s a cloke, and here 's a hood, 

The cauld lad o' Hylton will do no more good. 

Another version of the story is, that the Cauld Lad being colder than 
usual one night, asked the cook for the cloke and hood to keep him in 
decent temperature, and she laid them accordingly for him the next even- 
ing. The following morning there was found written on the table, 

I 've taken your cloke, I 've taken your hood. 
The cowed lad of Hylton will do no more good. 

Of the word cowed anon. 

This account, says Surtees, of the Cauld Lad's very indecorous be- 
haviour, on receiving his new livery, seems apocryphal. The genuine 
Brownie always received the present which was to banish him from his 
long-loved haunts with tokens of deep regret. Like the more elegant 
fays of the author of Paradise Lost, 

The lonely mountains o'er, 
And the resounding shore, 

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament, 
From haunted spring and dale 
Edged with poplar pale, 

The parting genius is with singing sent ; 
With flower-inwoven tresses torn, 

The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 
In consecrated earth 
And on the holy hearth 

The Lars, and Lemures, moan with midnight plaint. 

Indeed, it is very probable that the Brownies are genuine decendants 
of the Lar familiaris. One popular tradition, coupled with the doly 
ditty " Wae 's me !" &c, certainly gives some weight to Surtees' notion, 
viz., that long after the cloke and hood business, though he never more 



HYLTON CASTLE. 145 

disarranged the pewter and set the house in order, yet at the dead hour 
of midnight, his voice was heard singing in melancholy melody, 

Here's a cloke, and here's a hood, 

The cauld lad o' Hylton will do no more good. 

Notwithstanding, let us have English sprites with their laughs, before 
Scottish ones with their sighs all the world over. The frisking scene is 
more like England. The Portune disappeared with a loud laugh, so did 
Godric's goblins, and so do the Pixies of Devonshire, so much so that 
in that county, " laughing like Pixies" is a common proverb. A vale- 
diction in a Pixie story is much like that of the lad's : — 

Now the Pixies' work is done, 

We take our clothes and off we run. 

Still, non obstantibus all the cloke and hood doings, the Cauld Lad 
has a posthumous history. The " Cauld Lad's room" was ever deserted 
save when the castle in the last Baron's palmy days was full of com- 
pany, and within the last century many persons worthy of credence, 
heard at midnight the Cauld Lad's unearthly wailings. Indeed to this 
day some think he may be met with. An old quondam inhabitant of this 
most uncanny castle used to tell fearsome tales about his doings. One 
night she saw the Cauld Lad (" aye — that was the night, Sir") — looking 
in between some shutters which did not fit close. — " Well, and what 
was he like ?" — " WTiy, Sir, he hadn't a head." Headless phantoms are 
so common, that we need not comment upon them, but how they can look 
into a room is a mystery. William Howitt was also told at the castle 
that the Lad had no head. Some twelve years ago, old Mrs. Fitzpatrick, 
the keeper of the castle, was collecting subscriptions for laying the Cauld 
Lad. It seemed that a priest once exercised him for some years, and 
nailed as many nails in a door as the number of years was for which he 
had laid him. The last nail was about to drop, and the " very ancient 
woman" was dreadfully alarmed for the consequences. The rhyme 
" Wae's me ! " &c, mayhap relates to this matter rather than the cloke 
and hood story. A Dr. Wood once rented the castle for a school ; the 
scholars revived by their practical jokes all the antique traditions. Long 
after the cloke experiment, servants, one after another, deserted the house 
from frights they had received, especially a dairy-maid, who fell in love with 
richest milk and cream, and saluted them with mickle more than f< kisses 
three." One day she had been sipping with a spoon from various pans, 
when the Cauld Lad suddenly but invisibly bent over her shoulder, and 

L 



14G THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

said " Ye taste, and ye taste, and ye taste, but ye never gie the Cauld 
Lad a taste ! " Whereupon she dropped the spoon, in mortal fright rushed 
from the house, and never again would cross its threshold. There seems 
some connexion in the Lad's remark with the stories about his frater- 
nity : — 

how the drudging goblin sweat 

To earn his cream -bowl duly set, 
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, 
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn, 
That ten day-labourers could not end. 

The idea of a labouring sprite has been traced from the 12th century 
oi earlier to the present day, but in the Hylton and other instances, a 
modem murder and ghost story have been grafted on the older supersti- 
tion. 

The Hylton lad's origin is told in a very manifold manner. Hutchin- 
son mentions a record which we have not seen. " 7° Fox. pardon of Sir 
Will. Hilton, of all murders, misdemeanors, &c." Surtees hints that the 
story may originate in the fact recorded in the following inquest :— ■ 

Before John King, coroner of Chester Ward, at Hilton, 3 Jul, 7 Jac. 
1 609. Inquest on view of the body of Roger Skelton, there lying dead. 
The Jurors present that Robert Hilton, of Hilton, gent., the day and year 
aforesaid, between the hours of 8 and 9 in the forenoon, cutting grass (a 
then lordly occupation, it would seem) with a syth of the value of 20d. 
which he held in his hands as the said Roger was standing behind, unfor- 
tunately, with the syth point struck upon the right thigh of the same 
Roger one mortal wound, 1 inch long and 2 inches broad, of which wound, 
the same Roger, that same hour, in that place, died, and that by this 
cause and none other, &c. 

" Nevertheless," says he, " I strongly suspect that the unhousl'd spirit 
of Roger Skelton, ' whom in the hay-field the good Hylton ghosted,' took 
the liberty of playing a few of those pranks, which are said by writers of 
grave authority, to be the peculiar privilege of those spirits only who are 
shouldered untimely by violence from their mortal tenements : — 

Ling'ring in anguish o'er his mangled clay, 

The melancholy shadow turn'd away 

And follow'd through the twilight grey — his guide. 

— A free pardon for the above manslaughter appears on the rolls of Bishop 
James, dated 6th Sept., 1809." 

One of the popular origins of the apparition is, that it is an unfortunate 



HYLTON CASTLE. 147 

domestic, whom one of the old chiefs of Hylton slew at some very distant 
period, in a moment of wrath or intemperance. The Baron had, it seems, 
on an important occasion, ordered his horse, which was not brought out 
so soon as he expected ; he went to the stable, found the boy loitering, 
and seizing a hayfork, struck him, though not intentionally, a mortal 
blow. The story adds, that he covered his victim with straw till night, 
and then threw him into the pond, where the skeleton of a boy was (in 
confirmation of the tale) discovered in the last Baron's time. The country 
people, however, have other ideas of the Cauld Lad. The woman who 
shewed Wm. Howitt the house, on arriving at a certain chamber, pointed 
to a cupboard over the door, and said, "that is the place where they used 
to put the Cauld Lad." He replied, " to which he used to retreat, you 
mean." " No, no," reiterated she, pertinaciously, " where they used to put 
him." In her story, he was a boy, that on some account had been treated 
cruelly, and kept in confinement in this cupboard, where, no doubt, says 
he, in the winter, he acquired the unenviable epithet of the Cauld Lad. The 
Lad had no head ! and Howitt states that a lady well acquainted with 
the language and superstitions of the north, opined that his true name was 
the Cowed Lad, (and it must be confessed this is the usual pronunciation 
near Hylton) that is the lad with his head cut off, or at least with his 
hair cut very close, for so in Northumberland they call a person so dis- 
figured, " Why, how they have cow'd ye," and this view would take the 
murder to a sword rather than a scythe or fork. Another interpretation 
is that it means the Cow-lad or Cow-herd lad, i.e. the Baron's Cow 
keeper. Cold is, however, the more likely word ; coivd is only a dialectic 
synonym of cold or cauld, in the same way as Boldon is pronounced 
Bowdon. Cauld is cold, dead ; the cauld lad is, therefore, the dead lad, 
agreeing with the superstition. We learn in Relation 16 of Glanvil's 
Collection that the hand of a ghost is as " cold as a clod," and in the 
celebrated ballad of William and Margaret are the lines— 

" And clay cold was her lily hand, 
That held her sable shroud," 

— an unusual variation from the usual white covering of ghosts; while in 
Northumberland " caud deed," cold dead, is a very common redundancy. 

A more marvellous narration still, is that one of the Miss Hyltons once 
fell in love with the lad, when living at the whilk ; the Baron, when he 
found the pair in the Cauld Lad's room was so irate that he locked her 
up in the closet and fed her there on bread and water — in fact at last 
starved her to death. The Cauld Lad was murdered for the transaction, 

l 2 



148 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

and left his indelible blood spots on the floor of the apartment. This 
improbable but rather beautiful story is oddly connected with the family 
portraits at Hylton, one of which represented a lady, young and handsome? 
of whom, strange to say, there was presented another portrait exhibiting 
her in a state of mental derangement. 

" Oh ! I am altered since you saw me last, 
And time has written strange misfeatures on my cheek; 
That rosy blush lap't in a lily veil, 
Is now with morphew overgrown and pale." 

— These two remarkable pictures are stated in popular belief to have 
represented the Cauld Lad's ladyelove. 

The Cauld Lad is said to have existed in earthly wise, at a much more 
recent date than is generally supposed. Old Mrs. Booth, of Monkwear- 
mouth, who died aged 70, some twenty years ago, said that the Cauld 
Lad was living in her great grandmother's time ; and from what we have 
been able to make out in the Hylton country, he was in truth nothing 
more than a domestic fool, (which the family always kept up even to the 
last Baron,) who continually pestered the establishment with his fooleries. 
One day, when the river was very high, three gentlemen on horseback, 
opposite, asked the Lad who was standing on the Hylton side, if it was 
fordable, he replied Yes. They then asked if anything had passed before 
on that morning, and he again answered Yes. They took the ford and 
were almost lost ; and when the Baron, who soon found out from the horse- 
men's description who the offender was, asked him why he said Yes, he 
composedly replied, that " he had seen ducks swim across that morning !" 
He grew so mischievous in throwing away his clothes that they at last 
buttoned up his jacket behind, and one day seeing an old family grey- 
hound with bones standing up along its back like buttons on a coat, he 
stopped, looked, and dolefully said, " Times are sair altered wi' thou and 
me, poor beast, sin' we were baith buttoned up behind" One day the 
Baron came in drunk, became most exasperated at some misdemeanor of 
the Lad, and throwing his huge bootjack at his head, killed him in the 
very chamber which Howitt mentions, and where he had so often been 
closeted for punishment, in testimony whereof divers stains of blood, like 
Lady Gerard's at Darlington, appear unto this day. We also heard the 
hayfork and stable version of the tragedy ; but then how does it account 
for these wonderful stains so credible to the credulous ? It will be re- 
membered that the last and most jolly Baron was one of the latest 
gentlemen in England who kept a domestic fool. On one occasion on 



HYLTON CASTLE. 149 

his return from London, he quitted his carriage at Hylton Ferry, and 
amused himself with a homeward saunter through his own woods and 
meadows ; at Hylton foot bridge he encountered his faithful fool, who 
staring on the gaudily laced suit of his patron, made by some false 
suthron tailor, exclaimed, "who's fide now . ? " 

Let us vary all this marvellous romance with a bit or two more of real 
incident. During Mr. Wade's residence at Hylton Castle, a suthron was 
staying with a gentleman at Hylton, who sent his man-servant to conduct 
the stranger to Boldon to catch the Newcastle coach. On their way the 
polished south countryman asked who lived in the Castle, when the 
fellow replied, "Humph! He's nae greit shakes'" to his companion's 
great amazement ; and to his question, " whether they would arrive at 
Boldon in time," the answer that they might " with sair tues" completed 
his bamboozlement. On his return he gravely observed that the name 
of the Castle-owner, Mr. Negroshanks, appeared to him a very odd one, 
but that the servant had told him it was so, though he thought he must 
be a very strange creature, for he also informed him that they might 
arrive at Boldon in time, but then it would be with sore toes, the utility 
of which he did not comprehend. The domestic, however, soon cleared 
up the matter to his master's satisfaction ; and so perplexing is the Dur- 
ham dialect to unaccustomed ears, that one perfectly appreciates the poor 
gentleman's dilemma. To conclude these long Hyltoniana — a poor 
fellow was once passing along the road past the Castle when he heard a 
melancholy sound of " Click him! Catch him !" close to him. He ran 
in fright, and it sounded the quicker and continually in his ear ; he 
stopped, so did it ; he hurried on and it hastened in its reverberations. 
Away he went in mortal agony, and dashing at last into his house dis- 
covered a job for the cobler, inasmuch as his boot heel sole had come off, 
and had been flapping up and down in all its ghastliness ! 

In such wise endeth the woeful legend of The Cauld Lad of Hylton 



150 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 



Sh'gljclm Caatte, to. Stent*. 

There are few who have not heard at least of the many beauties of 
Hampshire — its wild forests — its warm and lovely vallies — its downy 
hills and its woodland glades. And in this favoured county no residence 
unites within itself so many advantages, and so many points of interest 
whether as regards scenery, antiquity, or architecture, as Highclere Castle. 
It is situated in a beautiful and extensive park about five miles south of 
Newbury ; and from its elevated site the towers of this noble edifice are 
visible to all the surrounding country, rising grandly from the deep 
woods that environ them. The refined taste and judgment of the pre- 
sent possessor, the Earl of Carnarvon, and the acknowledged genius of 
Mr. Barry, have contributed, whether we regard the building itself, or the 
disposition of the grounds, to make this one of the most beautiful re- 
sidences in Great Britain. Nature has been lavish of her gifts, and art 
has developed them ; and in wandering over this lovely domain, and ex- 
amining the details of this noble fabric, we cannot but feel that nothing has 
been left undone to make it a residence worthy of the illustrious family 
who have so long possessed it. This was one of the most ancient do- 
mains of the Church, and appertained to the see of Winchester, from the 
remotest times, " Semper fuit in ecclesiam tempore regis Edwardi," so 
says Doomesday Book. Other adjoining manors were also parcel of this 
vast domain. Clere, cui Hamelet de Newinton, Widihaie, Aremereonth, 
Estmieswell, Burclere (now Newtown, Woodhay, Ashmansworth, Ecchins- 
well, and Burghclere). The Bishops of Winchester had a house and 
park at Highclere, and another at East Woodhay, but the latter has been 
destroyed — the park divided into inclosures, and nothing now remains 
but the artificial mount on which the embattled house stood, and the 
vestiges of the moat by which it was defended. The celebrated William 
of Wykeham resided at Highclere, and this bailiwick continued in the 
Church till the reign of Edward the 6th, when it was granted to, or rather 
taken possession of, by the King. After various vicissitudes as to 
ownership it was bequeathed by Sir Robert Sawyer to the Honourable 
Robert Herbert, and by succession became vested in the Earl of Car- 
narvon, son of William, fifth son of Thomas Earl of Pembroke, and by 
his lineal descendants it is now held. The manors of East Woodhay, 
Ashmansworth, Newtown, and Ecchinswell, forming the remainder of 
the ancient bailiwick, were subsequently purchased of the Bishop of 



HIGHCLERE CASTLE. 151 

Winchester under the Land Tax Redemption act. The Castle of Highclere, 
as we have before observed, occupies an elevated site, and commands to 
the north and west rich and extensive views over the neighbouring 
counties. On the south it looks into a deep and verdant vale, forming a 
portion of the park, and bounded by the two romantic hills known 
as Siddown (the hill of the Thane) and Beacon hill, the former wooded to 
its very summit, and the latter standing out bare and clear, and exhibiting 
on its apex, one of the boldest and deepest British entrenchments in the 
south of England. There is no doubt but that the present structure 
occupies the site, if not indeed includes within its walls § the dwelling, of 
the ancient Saxon possessors of these manors. The Castle Hall is of 
great antiquity, and in perforating its walls during some recent alterations, 
a spur was found of that kind which was in use before armour was made 
to bend, and also other rude implements of an earlier age. The gigantic 
fire place, where the feudal retainers were wont to assemble round a 
blazing pile of enormous logs of oak, was also discovered, and passages 
were traced within the massive walls, constructed probably as a means for 
concealment, or of secret communication during those turbulent ages. 
The building has at various times been much altered and enlarged by its 
various possessors, but the present noble proprietor, with a taste and energy 
which posterity will appreciate, has rendered the castle worthy of the 
domain, and of the noble race to whom it descends. Mr. Barry, the 
celebrated architect, has here, under the direction of the noble Earl, pro- 
duced one of his happiest efforts, and we trust it will long remain 
undisturbed as one of the most successful monuments of his extraordinary 
genius. The style is of the period of the First James. The elevated 
portions of the north and south fronts, and the pinacles and perforated work 
which surmount the building, have a light and yet imposing appearance. 
The Herbert griffin holding in its mouth the bloody hand appears beauti- 
fully carved in stone in every variety of attitude, and the portcullis, so 
long borne on their banners by that family, is continually seen mixed up 
with badges, shields, and heraldic devices, introduced at different periods 
by alliances with other noble families, including the Howards, Marmions, 
Aclands, Nevilles, Veres, Parrs, &c. &c. Each angle of the fabric is 
flanked by a tower of elegant proportions, and from the western side 
arises from the site of the old feudal keep, a magnificent and massive 
tower, giving an effect of height and grandeur to the whole, which no 
description can adequately convey. The park is extensive, and in its 
variety of scenery, would appear to include in itself all the peculiar beau- 
ties of the county in which it is situated. The magnificent avenues, 



152 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

the dark groves of oak, the boundless woods, and the open glades of this 
favoured spot, form combinations of scenery which in variety and effect 
we have never seen exceeded. Towards the northern verge of the park, 
a lake embosomed in the forest presents a rare scene of tranquil beauty. 
In this secluded spot the present Earl has restored a Casino, built on 
the margin of the water by his ancestor, Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, 
in the 17th century, and there his Lordship has resided with his family, 
while the recent alterations have been carried on at the Castle. Looking 
across the water, heath -clad islands and deep glades in the forest give un- 
usual interest to this delightful scene. In the spring, banks clothed with 
exotic vegetation present masses of sparkling bloom, and a profusion of 
azaleas of every varying hue, load the air with their perfume. It is ad- 
mitted that for the beauty, luxuriance, and variety of its American plants, 
Highclere, as it was the first place in the kingdom where they attained 
perfection, surpasses every other at the present day. Indeed the whole 
scene, as beheld from the windows of the Casino when the sun is setting, 
is of such surpassing softness, that it has often been compared to some of 
the most favoured scenes of " warm and fervid Italy." In the centre of the 
park, and commanding a view, which of its kind is unrivalled stands the 
Pavilion or Temple. The waters of the upper lake wash the foot of the 
abrupt eminence on which it stands : and while the Castle, the Casino, 
the Siddown and Beacon hills, the noble woods and spreading lakes, fill 
the eye with wonder and delight, an exquisite woodland view of the 
country far to the north and west completes a scene, which it were difficult 
indeed for the most skilful artist to delineate. Here, with a liberality 
worthy of imitation, the noble Earl has provided rooms of reception for 
the numerous parties who visit this domain ; and here, without inter- 
ruption, they may wander as they will, amid scenes of beauty and gran- 
deur which the most insensate must enjoy. But perhaps the peculiar 
feature of this interesting property is its free Warren and free Chase. 
These almost immemorial rights here still remain, and constitute in 
themselves a species of feudal superiority in the very heart of the kingdom, 
which has no parallel. Given in the earliest days of the monarchy, con- 
firmed by successive grants, and when the feudal confirmations ceased to 
be issued, maintained on the score of ancient privilege and ancient grant, 
with singular and praiseworthy determination, by the present family 
down to the present Earl, these rights survive, a solitary specimen of 
those great and exclusive Norman free chases, which were once the ap- 
panage of the more powerful Barons of those days. In virtue of these 
singular rights the game over all the district, whether on waste lands or 



MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 153 

on private properties, belongs exclusively to the Earls of Carnarvon. 
They still claim the legal right, although it has been of course practically 
abandoned, of harbouring the stag, the wolf, the boar, and other beasts of 
the chase, within that woodland district, which, particularly the adjoining 
parishes of Highclere and East Woodhay, are still rich in ancient thorns, 
hollies, and oaks, and were doubtless the favourite haunts of these 
denizens of the forest. In virtue also of these grants of free warren, the 
Lord exercises an undisputed right over that ample range, including many 
thousand acres, to the rabbit, the hare, the partridge, and the pheasant, or 
he delegates that privilege under deputations to the gentlemen of the 
district. It were impossible within the limits of a work like the present, 
to detail half the beauties of Highclere. When the alterations at the castle 
are completed, and the admirable designs of the noble Earl with regard to 
the grounds and the park are carried out, we may fearlessly assert, that 
as a specimen of architectural excellence, as a scene of historic interest 
and picturesque beauty, Highclere, if not unrivalled will be at least un- 
surpassed. 



Middleham ! What associations are connected with this ancient Castle? 
How many gorgeous scenes of feudal splendour — what daring feats of 
arms — what hallowed deeds of piety flash across the mind, as its name 
meets the eye or ear of those who love to dwell on the " Historic Lands of 
England." 

Memory, powerful to uncreate the present and realize the past, traces 
the series of events which, during the long period of eight hundred years, 
have passed beneath its time-worn walls ; it sees the stern Norman Baron 
with his train of martial followers, founding on a rocky eminence that 
massive keep, which still defies the ravages of time. Anon the halls 
of state are thronged with lowly monks from Coverham, and the Lord of 
Middleham himself, forgetting the gallant exploits of his sires, and 
quitting his paternal halls, is found a dweller amongst that holy brother- 
hood. A change comes over the spirit of our dream, and we see the 
Baronial fortress passing into the hands of the princely Nevilles, and with 
vastly enlarged dimensions becoming suited for the reception of their nu- 
merous retinues, and finally, by an union with the heiress of that illus- 
trious race, an appanage of royalty itself, and a favourite abode of one 



154 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

of England's wisest but most calumniated Monarchs, it has reached the 
zenith of its glory, and now a corresponding period of decline ensues, until, 
after passing through various less distinguished hands, the noble edifice 
is finally dismantled, and we are left to mourn over it, as it now appears, 
a mass of crumbling ruins, another melancholy example of the mutability 
of all human grandeur. 

In the most fertile and lovely portion of Wensley-dale, that most 
beautiful of the northern vales, a gentle rising ridge, forming the eastern 
extremity of the base of stately Penhill, overlooks on one side romantic 
Coverdale, on the other, the golden valley and the graceful windings of 
the Yore. About half-a-mile from the southern bank of which, and 
near the summit of the ascent, is situated the town of Middleham, 
crowned by the remains of its ancient Castle, the work of Robert Fitz- 
Randolph, third Lord of Middleham, grandson of Ribald, youngest 
brother of Alan Rufus, Earl of Bretagne, and nephew of the Conqueror, 
who bestowed on him the Earldom of Richmond and Lordship of Middle- 
ham, which from the time of the Conqueror had belonged to Ghilpatric, 
a Dane. 

Alan granted the Lordship of Middleham to his youngest brother 
Ribald, who, on the death of his wife Beatrice, withdrew from the busy 
and distracting scenes of feudal power to the hallowed walls of St. Mary's 
Abbey at York, and died a monk, having first given five carucates of 
land at Bumeston to God and St. Mary's and Godfried the Abbot, for 
perpetual masses for the souls of Earl Alan his brother, and Beatrice his 
wife. On the day on which Ribald became a monk, his brother Stephen, 
Earl of Brittany and Richmond, confirmed Middleham and all its depend- 
ancies, by deed and the delivery of a Danish axe, to his nephew, Ralph, 
surnamed Taylbois, who married Agatha, daughter of Robert Bruce of 
Skelton, and following the pious example of his father, gave lands at Well 
and Snape,*to the monks of the new foundation at Fountains to pray for 
the repose of his soul and that of his mother. 

On his decease, which occurred about the 14th or 15th Henry IT., the 
Lordship descended to his son Robert above mentioned, who is expressly 
recorded as the founder and builder of Middleham Castle. He married 
Helewisia, daughter and sole heiress of the celebrated lawyer, Randolph 
de Glanville, Lord Chief Justice of England, who at the time (a.d. 1189) 
that his daughter founded the Priory of Swainby, in the parish of Pickhill, 
possessed very great power in Yorkshire, in consequence of having been 
there for some years in the high and responsible office of Viscount, or 
High Sheriff of that great county. On the 11th day of March, a.d. 1195, 



MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 155 

Helewisia died, and as usual in those days, was solemnly interred in the 
house of her endowment. Walleran, the eldest son of Helewisia, de- 
parted this life, and was probably also consigned to a temporary resting 
plaee at Swainby. Death thus made room for her second son Ranulph 
Fitz-Robert, who married Mary, daughter of Ralph Bigod, Earl of Nor- 
folk, as the new Lord of Middleham, and who, in virtue of his maternal 
descent, was also patron of the Swainby foundation. But from what 
cause, or by whose fault, is not recorded, he had long and serious dis- 
putes with the canons of that priory, which determined him to place 
them under his own immediate inspection : for this purpose no place in 
his wide domains seemed so* fitting as Coverham, " Scant, two miles from 
Middleham by west," as old Leland truly states, the deep solitude and 
seclusion of which was peculiarly adapted to monastic habits. The only 
church except Swainby, which the monks then possessed, looked imme- 
diately down upon the site of the new foundation, the vicinity of which 
to his own castle afforded the patron at once the means of curbing the 
canons when refractory, and the opportunity of enjoying the benefit of 
their society or their devotions. In the year 1214, this translation of the 
monks of Coverham took place, and in 1261, Ranulph Fitz-Robert, 
who is justly entitled to be considered as the founder of that Abbey, de- 
parted this life, and his remains were removed thither from Middleham 
Castle to their long resting place, where, near those of his mother, 
Helewisia, which had^been transferred from Swainby, a sculptured monu- 
ment marked the spot till the unhallowed period of the dissolution. His 
son and successor, Ralph Fitz-Randolph, married Anastasia, daughter of 
William Lord Percy ; but died without male issue, whereupon the castle and 
domains of Middleham were carried by the marriage of his eldest child 
and heiress, Mary, with Robert de Neville of Raby, into that illustrious 
family ; and this union brought together the lines of Fitz-Randolph and 
Neville till the reign of Richard III. The issue of this — if the narrative 
of contemporary historians be correct — unfortunate marriage, was Ralph 
de Neville, a noble Baron, careless in the management of his affairs, 
and fonder of residing with the monks of Coverham and Marton than in 
his own castles. He married twice, and by his first wife, daughter of 
Sir John Clavering, had two sons, on the elder of whom, called from his 
Jove of show and finery, " the Peacock of the North," his grandmother 
settled the Castle and Lordship of Middleham, with, all its appendages in 
fee ; but dying before his father, who survived until the year 1331, and 
was buried on the south side the altar at Coverham, he was succeeded 
by his only brother, Ralph, who, in the fifth year of Edward III., obtained 



156 THE ^ANDS OF ENGLAND. 

a fresh charter of free warren in all his lands and lordships in the co. of 
York. Following the pious example of some of his ancestors, he be- 
queathed divers lands and messuages to the Hospital of St. Michael the 
Archangel, at Well : and having spent a long and active life, died in 1341, 
and was buried in Durham Cathedral, where his monument still remains. 
His son and heir, John de Neville, who fought in Scotland, France, and 
Turkey, was such a gallant soldier that John of Gaunt, in consideration 
of fifty marks a year, charged on his estates in Danby and Forncett, 
Yorkshire, retained him in his service for life. By his first marriage with 
Maude, daughter of Lord Percy, he had Ralph his heir : by his second 
union, with Elizabeth, heiress of William Lord Latimer, he had John, 
subsequently Lord Latimer, whose estates devolved on his elder brother, 
John, Lord Neville, who possessed in different counties, upwards of sixty 
manors. He died on St. Luke's day, A 12 Rich. II., and was interred 
near hisfather at Durham. 

His successor, Ralph de Neville, having first won the golden spurs of 
knighthood, was in the 21st year Richard II., created Earl of Westmor- 
land, and subsequently received from Henry IV. a grant of the Earldom 
of Richmond (which title, however, he never assumed), and under him 
the power and grandeur of his race seem to have attained a high degree 
of eminence, having died possessed of the Honour and Castles of Rich- 
mond, Middleham, and Sheriff Hutton, which, with many a dependent 
manor, and many a fair southern lordship, were settled on the issue of 
his second princely alliance with Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of 
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and in which he was succeeded by her eldest 
son, Richard Neville, Lord of Middleham, who by his marriage with 
Alice, daughter and heiress of Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, 
acquired that title, and having joined the standard of Richard Plantagenet, 
Duke of York, who had married his sister, the Lady Cecilia Neville, was 
beheaded after the disastrous battle of Wakefield, a.d. 1460, when his 
estates became forfeited to the crown. But in the following year, 
Edward IV. regained the throne of his ancestors, and Middleham Castle, 
with all its vast domains and wide-spread manors, reverted to their 
rightful owner, the renowned " King Maker," Richard Earl of Salisbury, 
and (by his union with Anne, sole heiress of her brother, Henry Duke of 
Warwick), of Warwick ; under him the ancient fortress seems to have 
reached the height of its magnificence, and within its walls he kept all 
but royal state. To quote the beautiful language of the gifted author of 
11 The Last of the Barons," " The most renowned Statesmen, the mightiest 
Lords, flocked to his Hall : Middleham — not Windsor, nor Shcnc, nor 



MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 157 

Westminster, nor the Tower, seemed the Court of England." Here it was 
that the gifted Gloucester, his future son-in-law, learned the art of war from 
the princely Earl : here it was that the fourth Edward, conducted as a 
prisoner-guest, by his gallant bearing and sole-stirring address, bowed 
the Barons, Knights, and retainers of his overgrown subject, to his will 
Hence, left as tradition states, under the surveillance of Warwick's 
brother, the Archbishop of York, and indulged with the privilege of 
hunting in the park, he escaped on a fleet horse and resumed the reins of 
government. But we must not dilate too much. That mighty Earl 
who had made and unmade Kings, found a bloody grave at Barnet ; and 
Middleham, with its dependencies, was allotted to Richard Duke of 
Gloucester, in right of his wife, the Lady Anne Neville, Warwick's 
youngest daughter. Here he had wooed and won his lovely cousin ; 
here their only son was born ; here, at the early age of eleven years, that 
child had died, and here, too probably, he lies entombed. It is not, there- 
fore, to be wondered at, with all these endearing associations, and situated 
amid scenery the most lovely, that of all the stately castles he possessed, 
this was Gloucester's most favourite abode ; and after a lapse of nearly 
four hundred years, the place still continues associated with his name. 
For with the fullest sanction of all the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, 
in any way connected with it, he raised the rectory to a deanery, and the 
parochial to a collegiate church, still called — as in the words of the 
original charter of foundation — " The College of Richard Duke of 
Gloucester, at Middleham ; " and retaining its rights, privileges, and 
immunities, as granted or procured by the royal founder, ere his untimely 
fall on the fatal field of Bosworth. With that tragical event the sun of Mid- 
dleham set, and the castle and lordship, with all Richard's other domains, 
again became confiscated to the crown, by which it appears to have been 
leased from time to time to various individuals ; among them we find Sir 
Henry Linlie, Knight, who occupied the castle in 1609, and was succeeded 
by Sir Edward, afterwards Lord Loftus, who married one of his daughters 
and resided there. Pressed by want of money, Charles I. subsequently 
sold the estate to the citizens of London, who in their turn conveyed it 
to Mr. Wood, of Littleton, co. Middlesex, in whose family it still 
remains ; the crown claims the castle, and the Duke of Leeds, as 
representative of the Darcys, Earls of Holderness, holds the hereditary 
office of " Constable of Middleham Castle, and Chief Bailiff of Rich- 
mondshire." 

With respect to the edifice itself, very few words must suffice: 

The small remains of this once magnificent castle stand on the south 



158 THE LANDS OT ENGLAND. 

side of the town. It consists of two outworks fortified with four towers 
inclosing a body or keep. This envelope is in figure a right-angled 
parallelogram of 210 feet by 175 ; its greatest length running north and 
south, and each of its sides forming one of the cardinal points of the 
compass. As a specimen of architecture, Middleham is an unique but 
not a happy work. 

The Norman keep, the fortress of the first lords, not being sufficient 
for the vast trains and princely habits of the Nevilles, was inclosed by a 
complete quadrangle, which almost entirely darkened what was dark 
enough before, and the first structure now stands completely insulated in 
the centre of a later work. This building, which is much higher than the 
outwork, is of a shape similar to it. The main of the building is un- 
equally divided by a wall which turns from north to south, and here still 
remain the broken stairs. The entrance into this castle was by a very 
strong arched gateway on the north side. The moat is now filled up, 
but the leaden pipes, for the conveyance of water, were taken up within 
the memory of the mother of a person now living. As it is, majestic in 
decay, Middleham Castle is the noblest work of man in Richmondshire. 
Without any natural strength, except that of standing upon a little 
elevated rock, the views up and down Winsleydale are delightful ; but 
at a time when little gratification was taken in by the eye, the idea 
of property would supersede the feelings of taste, and the Nevilles would 
survey with pleasure the ample domains around them ; not because they 
were picturesque or beautiful, but because they were their own. 

As it often happened on the destruction of ancient castles, that a 
more modern edifice rose in their place, so it was at Middleham. About 
the middle of the seventeenth century, a handsome house was erected at 
no very great distance from the site of the original fortress. Middleham 
Hall, as this edifice still is called, with all the lands adjacent, were 
sold in 1771 by Sir James Pennyman, Bart, to Richard Dixon, Esq., who 
in 1800 conveyed it to the late John Breare, Esq., under whose will the 
mansion, with other estates, devolved on his nephew, Christopher Topham, 
Esq., the present possessor. 

The hall, which stands in a small park, is adorned by a handsome 
fish-pond, and surmounted by neat pleasure grounds, which command a 
magnificent view of the beautiful dale beneath, the windings of the Yore, 
and the distant mountain scenery. The house contains many 
comfortable rooms, several of which are panelled and covered with hand- 
some tapestry. 

A word on the town itself. Middleham is situated on a gentle rising 



MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 159 

ground in the most fertile and open part of Wensleydale, a short distance 
from the south bank of the river Yore, and is a small but ancient 
and well-built market town, containing several neat mansions 
occupied by respectable families. As a place of trade it never had 
any high interest ; but on the adjacent moor, which has long 
been famed as a school of the turf, many celebrated racers have been 
trained. With the exception of the church and castle, it does not 
possess many objects of interest. In the market place there is an ancient 
cross, and in the upper part of the town is a curious flight of double 
steps, with a recumbent figure on one side : this is now so mutilated as 
almost to baffle inquiry : it might represent the bear, which formed a 
portion of the cognizance of Earl Warwick. With greater probability, 
however, it may be assumed as the emblem of the silver boar, which, it 
is well known, was the peculiar badge of Richard Duke of Gloucester. 
This surmise is borne out by the circumstance of that portion of the town 
still retaining the name of " the Swine Market ; " and it has been stated 
by some of the older inhabitants that, in their earlier days, the figure, 
then in tolerable preservation, was a boar. Middleham still contains one 
or two Tudor houses ; but within the last few years several of the most 
ancient edifices have been pulled down. 

Its neighbourhood, however, is rich, not alone in objects of anti- 
quarian and historic lore, but also in the beauty and richness of its 
natural scenery ; and possessing, as it does, most comfortable accommo- 
dation for the tourist, seems a spot well adapted, from its central situation, 
for a resting place to the lover of the one or the admirer of the other : 
while he who fortunately is blessed with a taste for both may revel for days 
on the interesting and attractive objects in its vicinity. 

Westward are the yet perfect remains of Bolton Castle, where the 
lovely and hapless Mary Stuart was erst a prisoner in the keeping of 
the lordly Scrope ; and still the spot is pointed out, bearing the name of 
the Queen's Gap, where this victim of misfortune was recaptured when 
endeavouring to escape from her prison home. 

Westward, too, is the beautiful church of Wensley, the recently 
discovered ruins of a preceptory of Knights Templars, and the far- 
famed and romantic Aysgarth Force, which, with its adjacent church, 
will amply repay a visit. 

North is the magnificent natural terrace known by the name of 
Leyburn Shawl ; and within a drive Richmond Castle, with its lofty and 
massive keep as fresh and sharply chiseled as when, seven hundred years 
ago, Earl Conan, laying its foundation upon the rocky bank of the 



160 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Swale, reared that huge square tower, the walls of which, with their 
pinnacled turrets, have braved the dilapidating hand of time, and retain 
at this day their original dimensions and stability. 

South are the remnants of Coverham Abbey, where some of 
Middleham's earliest lords lie entombed. And in a sequestered spot, 
close by the romantic bed of the Cover, the little known but curious 
fragments of St. Simon's chapel and holy well. While eastward are the 
extensive and well-kept ruins of the once splendid Abbey of Jervaulx ; 
and further still, the castle and church of Tanfield ; where, each under 
his marble tomb, lie enshrined the renowned lords Marmion. These for 
the antiquarian alone ; but for him who loves to read from Nature's book, 
and delights in the works of his Creator, all Wensleydale abounds with 
the picturesque and the beautiful. There are lofty knolls and heath-clad 
mountains — there are hanging woods and precipitous rocks ; rivers 
windmg like the beauteous Yore, through the rich and verdant meadows 
which gird its margin, or, as the Cover, foaming and tearing its way over 
rocks and stones, far, far beneath the feet of him who stands at the 
summit of its precipitous and wood-bound banks. 



^trace iiteu. 

The ivied ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu. 



Wordsworth. 



On the north western boundary of Charnwood Forest, in a little dell 
watered by a babbling brook, stand some ivy covered walls and two 
or three farm buildings, which scarcely attract the notice of the ordinary 
stranger — the antiquarian or ecclesiologist, however, soon discovers 
traces of an oriel, a Gothic doorway, and a decorated window, which tell 
him a tale not read by vulgar eyes. 

Those crumbling walls, now dedicated to ignoble uses, are the ruins 
of Grace Dieu. The very name, like that of Valle Dei, Valle Crucis, &c. 
— at once so poetical, and so expressive of humble and holy trust — suggests 
the probability that the spot had been connected with religion. It was so. 
It was here that Roesia de Vekdun, in 1240, founded a " monastery 
of Nuns of the order of St. Austin, to the honour of St. Mary, and the 
Holy Trinity." 

This eminent lady, who plentifully endowed her foundation, was the 
daughter of Nicholas de Verdun : on whose death in 1 231, she, as sole heir, 



GRACE DIEU. 161 

paid seventy marks for the relief and livery of her inheritance, as also 
that she might not be compelled to marry. But it appears that she was at 
that time a widow, for the King, in 1224, had specially written to her 
recommending her to marry Theodore le Butiller, (a branch of the noble 
Irish family of Butler) and also to her father desiring him to back Butiller's 
suit. Yet though she married a person of so distinguished a family, 
neither Roesia nor her descendants bore his surname, but still retained that 
of De Verdon. She died in 1247. 

Dugdale gives the following Charter of the foundress, dated 1242, when 
Bishop Grosseteste confirmed the foundation: — "Know, present and 
future people, that I, Roesia de Verdun, have granted, and by this my 
Charter confirmed, to God and St. Mary and to the Church of the Holy 
Trinity of The Grace of God at Belton, and to the servants of Christ, the 
Nuns in the same Church serving God, in pure and perpetual alms, for me 
and my heirs, and for the souls of my parents and of all my ancestors, 
and of my husband's, all my manor of Belton, with the advowson of the 
Church of the same place, and all other the appurtenances and liberties 
which I and my ancestors ever used to have in the said manor ; to have, 
and to hold of me and my heirs, in pure and perpetual alms, freely, quietly, 
peaceably, and entirely, in demesnes, villanages, meadows, pastures, 
woods, the park, warren, mills, men, rents, services, sequels, and all 
other things to the said manor belonging, without all exaction, service, 
and peculiar demand. And I, Roesia, and my heirs, will for ever acquit 
the aforesaid Nuns of the Royal service which belongs to the said manor, 
with the appurtenances abovesaid to the same Nuns in the aforesaid 
Church serving God, against all nations. And that this my gift, grant, 
confirmation, and warrantization, may obtain perpetual firmness, I have 
thought fit to corroborate this my present writing with the putting to it of 
my seal. Witnesses — Sir Richard de Harecourt ; Sir Ernald de Bois ; 
Sir Ralph Basset of Sapcote ; Sir Richard, of Normanville ; Sir Adam, of 
Quartermars ; Sir Miles de Verdun ; Roger Gernun ; Sir Adam de 
Newport ; Master Thomas de Verdun, then Rector of Ibestoke ; Henry 
de Hertshorn, and others." 

As from the rules of their Order the Nuns of Grace Dieu were prohibited 
from leaving the limits of the Nunnery, King Henry III., by his Royal 
Charter, gave the Abbess liberty to constitute an attorney in all cases 
in which they had cause to sue or be sued. Agnes de Gresley 
appears to have been the first Prioress, but either from her resignation or 
death Mary de Stretton, with the approbation of the foundress, was 

M 



!££ THE I-ANDS OP ENGLAND. 

elected in 1 243, and shortly after the Prioress and Convent obtained 
permission for a market and fair at their manor of Bel ton. 

Amicia, widow of Archer de Freschevile, Sir William de Wastneis, 
(1279) and John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, (1306) were all great benefactors 
to this house. 

For three centuries had the secluded sisterhood of Grace Dieu been 
regarded by the neighbouring foresters almost as beings of brighter sphere 
— their convent the sole bright spot in the wilderness — and their convent- 
bell the only one that called to prayer and praise, when the dissolution 
of the smaller monasteries was decided on, and three commissioners, 
Leigh, Layton, and John Beaumont* (the last living at the adjoining 
hamlet of Thringstone) carried alarm and consternation to the Prioress 
and nuns by entering their quiet refectory and commencing an inquiry 
into their " lives and conversation." The Compendium compertorum soon 
tells the result. 

■•Incontinentia {JSASU *""~*" 

When it is stated that the convent and its demesnes were the next 
clay conveyed to one of the commissioners — that this commissioner 
had long coveted his neighbour's goods — that he after confessed to 
" forgeries and misdemeanours," against the State and Lady Powis, to 
the amount of £20,861 — the posthumous reputation of the poor nuns of 
Grace Dieu can scarcely be said to be affected by a report which has on 
the face of it strong evidence of its having been a foregone conclusion. 
The Prioress, Agnes Lytherland, and the fifteen sisters, may well be 
supposed to have left a home so dear to them much as Priam's wife and 
daughters left their own : 



v o' 



" Hie Hecuba et natae nequicquam altaria circum, 
Prsecipites atra seu tempestate columbse, 
Condensae et divftm amplexae simulacra sedebant." 

" Mr. Beaumont," says Nichols, " was soon interrupted in his newly- 
acquired property, by a claim of the Earl of Huntingdon, — on which 
he addressed a letter to Lord Cromwell, couched in terms of cringing 
servility, stating his fear of Lord Huntingdon to be very great, and that 



* Grandson of Sir Thomas Beaumont of Coleorton, and subsequently Master of 
the Rolls. 



GRACE DIEU. 163 

he had " had secret warnyng to wayre a privy coate."* In 1541 he was 
cited to shew by what title he held the site of the Priory ; and he appears 
to have answered this citation satisfactorily, for he still retained posses- 
sion. In 1550 he was elected Recorder of Leicester, and in the same 
year was appointed Master of the Rolls. In 1551 he levied a fine 
with proclamations of this lordship, to the use of King Edward VI. and 
his successors ; and in 1552, when on his " misdemeanours" becoming 
fully detected, he surrendered this and other estates, Francis, Earl of 
Huntingdon, by the King's letters patent obtained a grant, in fee farm, 
of the capital mansion of the Manor-house of Grace Dieu, with the whole 
manor of Grace Dieu and the Grange called Myral Grange, and several 
other lands, all lately part of the possessions of John Beaumont, Master 
of the Rolls. He did not long survive the loss of his reputation and 
estates ; in five years after, Elizabeth, his widow, claimed and regained 
possession of Grace Dieu. The glory shed around the spot by the suc- 
ceeding Beaumonts may well be said to have wiped away this, the only 
stain that ever sullied the lustre of their escutcheon. Of these good and 
gifted men our space only permits us to give a mere enumeration, instead 
of the lengthened notice which their virtues, and their contributions to 
literature, deserve. 

Francis Beaumont, eldest son of the Master of the Rolls, and of his 
second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Hastings, succeeded to 
the estate on the death of his mother. He had been educated for the 
bar, and in 1593 became one of the Justices of Common Pleas, and was 
afterwards knighted. Burton speaks of him as " that grave, learned, 
and reverend Judge, Francis Beaumont, Esq." 

Sir Francis Beaumont married Anne, daughter of Sir George Pierre- 
point, of Holme, and dying April 22, 1598, left by her three sons — 
Henry, John, and Francis. Henry, who was only sixteen at his 
father's death, was knighted by James I. at Worksop, in ] 603, on his 
Majesty's journey from the Scottish to the English capital. He died in 
1606, leaving his lady (Barbara, daughter of Anthony Faunt, of Foston, 
Esq.) then pregnant. This posthumous child proving a daughter (who 
afterwards married first John Harpur, Esquire, and secondly Sir Wolstan 
Dixie), the estate devolved on John Beaumont, Sir Francis's second son, 
who married Elizabeth Fortescue (a descendant of George, Duke of Clar- 
ence, brother of Edward IV.), was created a baronet in 1626, and died in 
1628, having obtained considerable reputation both as a poet and a sol- 

* Cotton MSS., Cleopatra IV., 132. 



1C4 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

dier. His poem of u Bosworth field," published, with several minor 
poems, by his son, in 1629, was praised by Jonson, Drayton, and several 
other contemporary writers. 

Francis Beaumont, the great dramatic writer, whom Wordsworth calls 

That famous youth full soon removed 
From Earth, perhaps by Shakspeare's self approved — 
Fletcher's associate — Jonson's friend beloved — 

the third son of Sir Francis, was born at Grace Dieu in 1586, and died 
in his thirtieth year : having, in conjunction with Fletcher, added Jifty- 
three plays to English dramatic literature, and written many poems of 
exquisite pathos and beauty. 

His brother, Sir John Beaumont, the first baronet, left by his wife, 
Elizabeth Fortescue, seven sons and five daughters ; of these sons two 
were distinguished poets — John and Francis. Sir John, the second baronet, 
who edited his father's poems, was as renowned for his astonishing feats 
of strength and agility, as for his cultivation of the belles lettres of those 
days. He died at the siege of Gloucester, 1641, bravely fighting for 
his royal master, and was succeeded by his brother Thomas, the third 
baronet. 

Sir Thomas married Vere, dau. of Sir William Tufton, brother to the 
Earl of Thanet, and dying in 1686 left four daughters, only the eldest of 
whom inherited Grace Dieu, and married her distant relative, Robert 
Beaumont of Barrow upon Trent, Esq., who sold the estate to Sir Ambrose 
Phillipps of Garendon, whose lineal descendant, Ambrose Lisle March 
Phillipps, Esq., erected and now inhabits the beautiful neighbouring 
mansion called Grace Dieu Manor. 

About a mile from the ruins, stands the now celebrated modern 
monastery of Mount St. Bernard, one of Mr. Pugin's happiest productions ; 
and this, with the ruins, which have been the subject of our narrative, 
and the manor house, and contiguous chapel — all situated amidst scenery 
remarkable for the rugged character of its rocks — render the locality as 
interesting as any similar area in our island. But Wordsworth has so 
well described, in numbers more than usually harmonious for him, the 
chief object in our picture, that we cannot better close our remarks 
than by giving * the poet's glowing thought' — 



Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound 
Rugged and high, of Charn wood's forest groi 




3 

c6 



HAYNE. 165 



Stand yet, but, stranger ! hidden from thy view, 

The ivied ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu ; 

Erst a religious house, which day and night 

With hymns resounded, and the chaunted rite : 

And when those rites had ceased, the spot gave birth 

To honourable men of various worth ; 

There, on the margin of a streamlet wild, 

Did Francis Beaumont sport, an eager child ; 

There under shadow of the neighbouring rocks, 

Sang youthful tales of shepherds and their flocks ; 

Unconscious prelude to heroic themes, 

Heart-breaking tears and melancholy dreams 

Of slighted love, and scorn, and jealous rage, 

With which his genius shook the buskined stage ; 

Communities are lost, and empires die, 

And things of holy use unhallowed lie ; 

They perish — but the intellect may raise, 

From airy words alone, a Pile that ne'er decays. 



??amie, co. iie&on. 

Whichever side of the question we may incline to, as regards the 
fatal disputes between Charles the First and his Parliament, it is impos- 
sible for any one, who is not blinded by the prejudices of a sour bigotry, 
to be insensible to the chivalrous and high-toned character of the 
Cavaliers. They had all the virtues, and it may be many of the vices, 
of the romantic ages, when loyalty to the throne, devotion to the fair, 
and a generous gallantry in the lists, were carried to an excess, which 
threw such a flood of glory about them, that the dazzled eye is no more 
able to detect their minuter blemishes, than it would be to observe the 
spots upon the sun, when it is brightest. The Cavaliers, indeed, had 
thrown aside much of the stately decorum of their prototypes, just as they 
had put off no small portion of their defensive armour ; but they were 
not a whit the less dangerous in the field, and were ten times pleasanter 
at a banquet. With them life was a splendid and joyous romance ; they 
loved heartily, prayed sincerely, fought stoutly, gave freely, received hard 
blows with the same right good will that they dealt them, and when all 
was over might truly say with the Lord Chief Justice in. Henry the 
Fourth, 



166 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

" What they did, they did in honour, 
Led by the impartial conduct of their souls.' ' 

That they lived in the hour, and for the hour, might be a fault, but, if so, 
it was a fault allied to many virtues, and that so closely, the good of 
their characters could hardly have existed without the evil. If to-day 
they were beaten, they were not the less ready to fight again, and perhaps 
to conquer, on the morrow, but whether defeated or victorious they 
remained ever the same joyous and untameable spirits, neither ashamed 
of themselves, nor out of temper with their enemies. While the Puritans 
made a pain of pleasure, they made a pleasure of pain, and it can scarcely 
be called an exaggeration to say they rushed to the fight or to the feast 
with the same light-heartedness. Moreover the battle they waged was 
for the faith of their forefathers both in politics and religion ; and even 
if that faith were a false one — which may well admit of question — still 
it came recommended to them by the sanction of ages. It had been 
the lesson of their early childhood, and they honoured and obeyed it with 
the duty of a son towards his parent. 

We have not made these remarks, as wishing to adjudge the question 
of right or wrong between the parties — though of course, like other 
people, we have our own opinions upon the subject — but simply to justify 
our admiration of the brilliant qualities displayed by the Cavaliers. We 
cannot help loving them as we do the knights who figure in the inimita- 
ble pages of Froissart, and must confess — perhaps to our shame — that 
we have more regard for their gay and sparkling follies than for the sour 
virtues of their opponents. One feels always inclined to say to the latter, 
as honest Sir Toby said to the stiff and precise Malvolio — " Dost thou 
think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale V* 

This is a somewhat long introduction to a short story, the few words 
with which we meant to have prefaced our account of the loyal family of 
the Harris's having imperceptibly swelled into an eulogium — it is to be 
hoped the reader may not find it a tedious one — upon the stout old 
Cavaliers. And now to the real matter in question— Hayne, and its 
various possessors. 

In Domesday Book the manor of Stowford is registered as belonging 
to "Hugo comes," the son of Robert, Earl of Mortain and Cornwall, a 
uterine brother of the Conqueror. On the maternal side he might boast 
of a descent scarcely less illustrious, his mother being Matilda, daughter 
of Roger de Montgomeri. The title by which we find him afterwards 



HAYNE. 167 

distinguished, he assumed, or it was granted, upon its being forfeited by 
the original and proper owner of it, Baron Roger de l'Eaulne,* to whom 
the designation of right appertained and who had greatly exerted himself 
on William's side at the battle of Mortemer, so disastrous to the 
French king and all his army. "From the rising of the morning sun," 
says Wace, " till three in the afternoon the assault lasted in its full force, 
and the battle continued to be hot and fierce. The French could not 
escape, for the Normans would let no one pass ;" and while, in conse- 
quence of their being thus hemmed in by a triumphant enemy, multitudes 
were either killed or wounded, not a few of the better sort were made 
prisoners and held to ransom. Amongst these was a certain Count 
Raoul de Mont Didier, for whose safe-keeeping William seems to have 
been not a little anxious, whether from motives of revenge or policy, or it 
may be from both united. This prize he consigned to the custody of 
the Baron de l'Eaulne, as one who was bound to himself by so many and 
so deep obligations, and who therefore of all men was the one least 
likely to betray his trust. But it so chanced that the Baron owed fealty 
to his prisoner, and the latter availing himself of this circumstance de- 
manded that his vassal would set him free. In all probability the whole 
was a mere juggle between them, a preconcerted scheme in order that De 
Mortemer might have some excuse for his breach of trust. But the plot- 
ters found themselves egregiously mistaken ; Duke William would allow 
of no such flimsy pretexts ; he at once banished the traitor fron Nor- 
mandy, confiscated his estates, and gave the keeping of Mortemer Castle 
to his own nephew, Hugo, who hereupon assumed the name of Mortemer 
de l'Eaulne. Thus attached to Duke William as much by gratitude as 
by kinship, Hugo accompanied his uncle in his invasion of England, and 
conducted himself with so much skill and courage that he has earned 
what men love to think a lasting record both in romance and chronicle. 
Unfortunately the record itself grows obsolete ; and even if that were 
not the case, the world is too much occupied with its own immediate 
interests to give more than a few hasty glances at the past, and then 
only when the actors and the occurrences stand out with unusual pro- 
minence, or are in some way connected with the present. 

The father of our Hugo, the Earl of Mortain, had also played a con- 
spicuous part at the battle of Hastings, for which he reaped an ample 
recompense in the division of the spoil that followed, while the discom- 

* Eaulne is a river in Normandy. 



168 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

fited Saxons invoked heaven and earth for vengeance upon their 
oppressors, as if they had themselves any other title to the land they 
held, than what flowed from the real or imaginary rights of conquest. 
On this occasion the Duke, now King William, distributed his bounties 
with the proverbial and easy generosity of those who are giving away 
the property of others. Prudence no doubt recommended the binding 
his associates to him by the strong chains of interest, yet even this con- 
sideration will hardly account for his bestowing no less than seven 
hundred and ninety-three manors on the fortunate Robert, whom, at the 
same time, he created Earl of Cornwall. 

If the new-made Earl had been thus fortunate in receiving, he was 
no less frank in giving. With a liberality that is not often exercised by 
living fathers towards their children, he at once made over the manor of 
Stowford, and other lands in that neighbourhood, to his son Hugo, who 
finally settled there, and called the Castle appertaining to it by his own 
Norman name of De 1'Eaulne ; this appellation in time came to be cor- 
rupted into Eaune — Ayne — and Hayne, by which last title it is known 
at present. From this period it continued in the possession of his de- 
scendants until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Thomasine, 
the heiress of Walter of Hayne, married the son of Harris of Stone, 
who had obtained that property in the same way that his son now 
became possessed of Hayne, that is, by intermarrying with the heiress. 
He was himself a younger son of the Radford family. 

Such was the origin of a family, which, in the time of the great civil 
war, stood first among the first of those who devoted life and fortune, 
heart and soul, to the cause of loyalty. When the King put himself at 
the head of his adherents in the west, Mr. Harris had, by his union with 
Cordelia, the heiress of Lord Mohun of Okehampton, acquired a right 
to share the large possessions of that family with Lord Courtenay, and 
he now hastened frankly and freely to peril all in the royal service. He 
got together a gallant troop of a hundred horse, whom he mounted and 
equipped at his own expense ; his cousin, Sir Bevil Grenville, did the 
same, and the two, marching out together, joined the king on the con- 
fines of Okehampton Park, whence they escorted him to Hayne. Here 
the magnificent owner entertained Charles for three days, an honour 
which, to his enthusiastic loyalty, was no doubt the highest reward 
that could be offered, though, all things considered, it came fraught with 
near and substantial danger. But then, it was this state of affairs that 
brought the King and those who adhered to him, into closer connexion, 



HAYNE. 169 

and tightened the bonds of union between them. In ordinary times the 
subject has seldom an opportunity of shewing his attachment to the 
person of his monarch, or even of approaching him, except amidst the 
forms of a distant ceremonial, which may indeed increase respect, but 
most assuredly does not invite affection. Now all was altered, and 
greatly for the better, as regarded the kindly feelings of either party. 
To-day they feasted at the same table, to-morrow they shared the same 
dangers, and the usual barriers of rank were to a certain degree broken 
down by this brotherhood in pain and pleasure, till the monarch was 
lost sight of in the guest and comrade. It was a time, too, that of 
necessity shewed him under the most favourable colours. Even if we 
suppose, as is too often the case, that the royal gratitude would not long 
have outlived the occasion which gave rise to it, still, for the moment, 
Charles must have had strong feelings of kindness for those whose ser- 
vice was so eminently disinterested ; and this feeling, to say nothing of 
his own interests, must have brought out all the better parts of his 
character. We may therefore be allowed to picture, without going be- 
yond a modest exercise of the imagination, the three days that Charles 
spent at Hayne, enjoying the moment, yet not without a passing cloud 
of apprehension for the future. And then again, the redoubled zest 
with which he would give himself up to the pleasures that courted him, 
as soon as the dark moment had passed away, and he was once more 
wholly possessed by the present. These hours must have been rendered 
yet sweeter, by the conviction that they could only be few, and might, 
perhaps, never return, as indeed they never did, for of the brave spirits 
that now gathered about him, how many of the noblest were destined to 
perish long before his own career had terminated. On the third day he 
quitted Hayne to set out for Boconnoc in Cornwall. 

It will be doubted by some, who may yet admire our stout-hearted 
Cavalier, whether his zeal did not at times rather outrun his discretion. 
On one occasion it was his fortune to capture a ringleader of the rebels, 
as he of course designated all opponents to the royal cause, for whose 
benefit he immediately determined to revive a dormant privilege, belong- 
ing to him as the lord and custodian of Lidford- Castle. By virtue of 
this office, in times gone by, the several owners had possessed a jurisdic- 
tion separated and distinct from the common law of the realms, though 
it had long ceased to be exercised, at least in its full extent. Availing 
himself, however, of the privilege, he summoned the local and feudal 
court of Lidford, who sat in judgment upon the prisoner more majorum, 

N 



170 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

found him guilty of high treason, and condemned him to death, a sentence 
that was carried into effect upon the Castle-mound with as little ceremony 
as it had been pronounced. This, it seems, was taken exceedingly ill by 
the defunct Roundhead ; he could not rest quietly in his grave, but ever 
since — as the people say and believe — when any chief of the Haynes is 
about to die, he shews his joy at the event, by perambulating the park- 
terrace at night with his head under his arm. If, however, the accounts 
given of the castle-dungeons are not exaggerated beyond all conscience, 
the prisoner ought to have been thankful to his judges for taking off his 
head as they did, for any thing must have been better than confinement 
in such an abominable hole. In 1512 an Act of Parliament described it 
as "one of the most heinous, contagious, and detestable places in the 
realm." In King James' time, Browne says of it, 

" To lie therein one night, 'tis guess'd 
'Twere better to be ston'd and press' d* 
Or hang'd — now choose you whether." 

And there seems little reason for supposing that the fiery Cavalier had 
given any attention to the improvement of his dungeon, more particularly 
when it was to be used as a place of punishment for Roundheads. 

Tradition affirms that Charles the Second was concealed at Hayne for 
some days, when he lurked in the west of England before his escape to 
the continent. At all events, whether this was or was not to be added to 
the list of the owner's faithful services, the King upon his restoration 
created him a baronet, with a handsome pension extending to the second 
generation, an unusual act of royal munificence, and plainly shewing in 
what high estimation Charles must have held him. The deed of gift is 
still preserved among the family records. 

The descendants of this uncompromising royalist continued to tread in 
his steps, and maintained their fidelity to the Stuarts unshaken till the 
time of the Hon. John Harris, whose daughter-in-law, Miss Rolle, of 
Heanton, had married the eldest son of Sir Robert Walpole. By 
ministerial influence he was then made deputy master of the household 
to George the Second and Third, and sat in Parliament, first for Oakhamp- 
ton, and afterwards for Ashburton, but always voting in favour of the 
minister. His elder brother, Christopher, remained more faithful to the 

* Meaning " pressed to death," an allusion to the peine forte et dure, employed 
upon prisoners, who refused pleading to a charge, and which was continued till 
they either yielded or died. 



HAYNE. 171 

family principles. Rejecting every overture made by Sir Robert Walpole 
to win him over to the interest of Hanover, he adhered to the Stuarts till 
the very last. 

The ancient castle of Hayne, the seat of so many recollections, stood 
upon a lofty eminence in the park, called the Warren, and in the beginning 
of this century some vestiges of it were still visible. It is supposed the 
old walls were pulled down, with more economy than taste, at the end 
of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, to supply mate- 
rials for the present mansion, but in what precise year this destructive 
work took place is now uncertain. The building stands at the foot of 
the hill, at no great distance from the river, a position which unquestion- 
ably has some advantages, though, upon the whole, it hardly seems so 
desirable a spot as that occupied by the old castle. The mansion itself is 
particularly handsome and venerable, and was much beautified and re- 
paired by the late Mr. Donnithorne Harris. The apartments occupied 
by King Charles have, however, been carefully preserved. The old mill 
is supposed to be coeval with the Norman conquest, and is exempt from 
tithe, tax, or toll of every description. There are many such in England 
attached to old castles and abbeys, the most perfect specimen being that 
at Guy's Cliff, in Warwickshire. The possession of Hayne, by a lineal 
descendant of Count Hugo, gives the office and privileges of High or Chief 
Warrener of Dartmoor Forest. After the marriage of the heiress of Hayne 
to Mr. Harris, her descendants were personally re-confirmed in their mano- 
rial rights and royalties by an express grant from Queen Elizabeth. If 
Hayne were to be sold, the manor might be transferred to the purchaser, 
but the royalties would cease, being personal to the descendants of Count 
Hugo, and attached also to the possession of Hayne.* 

The manor of Stowford was formerly held by the tenure and condition 
that the owner should present the King with a gold ewer and napkin, at 
Polstone Bridge on the Tamar, whenever he visited that part of his 
dominions. This office was performed for the last time — and for the first 
upon record — by Mr. Harris and Sir Bevil Grenville, when King 
Charles entered Cornwall, after having reviewed the troops encamped on 
Lifton Down. 

The present co-representative of the Haynes and the Harrises are 

* Manorial rights appear to be Signorial, or " par droit de Seigneur;" but a 
Royalty is a power or privilege delegated by the Crown, and can be revoked at plea- 
sure. If the Hayne family were to omit the presentation of the ewer and napkin at 
Polstone Bridge, according to the olden law the Royalty would be forfeited. 



172 THE LANDS OF ENGLAND. 

Penelope Harris and Elizabeth, widow of the late Isaac D. Harris, Esq., 
daughters of Christopher Harris, Esq., of Hayne, who derived a direct 
descent from the Royal House of Plantagenet. (See Burke's " History 
of the Royal Families, vol. ii. The elder co-heir is unmarried, and 
the heirship of the family is vested in Christopher Arthur Harris, 
Esq., son of the younger sister. He married a daughter of the late 
Mrs. Watkins, of Pennoyre, sole heiress of the Vaughans, of Golden 
Grove, co. Carmarthen, which family is now represented by Col. Lloyd 
Vaughan Watkins, M.P. for Brecon, and Lord Lieutenant of that 
county. 



THE END. 



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